The Infinite Time Loops: Strider
by MorenoX25
Summary: Based on Innortal's Loops as well as Saphroneth's MLP Loops. Strider Hiryu finds himself trapped in a Time Loop that never ends and begins a spiritual journey of massive proportions.
1. Loop Mechanics

Here are the basics of the Infinite Time Loops Fanfiction Project, or The Infinite Loops, as it is more often called. Every piece of published original fiction exists as its own universe in the Multiverse contained within Yggdrasil, which has broken. Until it is fixed, everything is held in stasis via Time Loops to keep it from getting worse. Projected completion date for the repairs is Infinity. The Intinite Loops is the story of various characters from the universe caught up in the Time Loop, as they deal with the problems caused by having Infinite Time on their hands. Shenanigans ensue.

Immediately below are the rest of the basics, as summarized by Saphroneth.

 **Loop mechanics (general):**

*One person in a Loop, often the main character, is an Anchor. They are the person who first starts time looping.

*There is always at least one Anchor present in a given Time Loop snippet, though it may not be the local one.

*The standard pattern for a loop is that the Anchor (and whoever else is Looping there) come to awareness in a loop at a particular point in the story. From there, events will play out as influenced by the Loopers present, acting with the benefit of their foreknowledge, until either a predetermined end point is reached or all the Loopers have copped it.

*To be Awake is to be aware of the time loops (that is, to have gone back in time this time.)

*The Anchor is the only character guaranteed to be Awake. Even after others have started looping, it is mostly random as to whether they will be Awake this particular loop.

*Crossovers, fusions, and alternate pasts can also take place. It is perfectly possible, for example, to have the characters Awaken into a loop which conforms to a fanfic universe rather than reality.

*Loops do not have to be in chronological order, but it is strongly preferred that they not require a mutually contradictory order (where A must be before B and B must be before A.)

*Just about every Looper is very, very stir crazy.

 **Now for some Strider info:**

 **Story  
** Strider's history is a complete mess thanks to how disjointed all the games of the series are, not to mention the different versions on different consoles. There was a Strider Manga, and one could take that as reference but I have never met a single soul who has read it. The only information I can go by are from the Strider wiki, but that is just a general overview and chapter descriptions, so there is not much to get from those.  
So here's the deal, I'll be taking the rebooted Strider Game from 2014 as the base loop, beginning with Strider Hiryu initial infiltration to Kazakh City. This will served as substitution for Strider 1.  
Now since infiltration to the city and the defeat of Grandmaster Meio (the main badguy) only takes around 3-4 hours, that would make a very short loop. So the loop would extend to the events of Strider 2.  
For those who don't know, Strider 2 takes place 2000 years after Strider 1. Yes, this loop is 2000 years long, and yes I'm of the ones who believe that Hiryu lived two millenniums, probably thanks to the super advanced medical technology of the future, to defeat Meio again.  
Now, for those who know their Strider history, some might say : "Wait a second! In Strider 2 Meio is brought back thanks to Strider Hien, and in the reboot Hien is dead!"  
Well…yeah, but who's to say Meio really killed him. Hien could've faked his own death or Meio could have brainwashed him as a back-up plan. Boom! Plot hole fixed. Besides, Hien is too pretty too awesome to leave for dead.  
Also, I was thinking of adding the story from the Manga, before the events of _Strider Hiryu Gaiden_ , into the middle of those 2000 years. Where Hiryu's sister Mariya went mad after an assignment and Hiryu is ordered to kill her.  
Now this story is suppose to happen a long time before the events of Strider 1, (now the Reboot). Buuuut….. if I move this story after the reboot, it would make more sense why Hiryu distanced himself from the Striders and why wasn't he exterminated alongside the rest of the Striders before the events of Strider 2.  
Besides, like a said before. No one has a clue about what is and what is not canon on the Strider franchise. ****

 **Now for weaponry.  
** In my humble opinion, I prefer the "modern" Cypher model which works much different from the original model in how it uses plasma.  
Since I'm lazy, I'm going to let this script from the Strider wikia do my work for me.

"The Cypher can't generate plasma energy on its own, and if used by a normal or lesser person, it'd act like a common sword. Instead, the blade channels the build up psychic energy from its user, which then affects the sword's output of plasma energy when swung. In Hiryu's case, he's so powerful that he generates plasma energy in excess he doesn't need, so it leaks outside of his body in the form of a trail of plasma similar to a scarf."  
That is frickin' awesome.

"By tuning his own internal energy, Hiryu can also alter the affinities of the plasma energy he generates and infuses into the Cypher, providing it with several upgrades. Through this method he can create special edges such as the scorching hot "Explosive Cypher", infusing the blade with emitted heat, or the freezing "Cold Cypher", which generates a blade at absolute zero temperature which freezes anything it touches. He can also infuse specific abilities to the plasma, such as the electromagnetic field from the "Reflect Cypher" (allowing it to deflect enemy shots) or the magnetic force from the "Magnetic Cypher" (creating a projectile out of the blade which returns to him like a boomerang)."  
Hiryu also carries a set of kunai in a sheath strapped to his right shoulder, opposite of his Climb Sickle. They are used to quickly strike at enemies at long distance or who are otherwise difficult to approach, as well as to activate special door locks in the form of cube. ****

Kunai can also be powered-up by Hiryu and acquire different properties like the Cypher. **  
Reflect Kunai:** The Kunai bounce off surfaces when thrown. **  
Explosive Kunai:** In this form, Kunai become sticky bombs, sticking onto enemies and exploding after a short time. **  
Ultra-Cold Kunai:** Provides the throwing knives with the same freezing power of the Ultra-Cold Cypher. **  
Magnetic Kunai:** Kunai gain homing capabilities when thrown, swarming enemies before returning to Hiryu. ****

 **As for Options.  
** I also prefer the Options from the 2014, but with a small alteration. Instead of the options being projections of the plasma energy stored in ball form. Now are the same as previous games except they now are infused with Hiryu's inner energy to give them their new plasma power-up form.  
These Options are condensed into sophisticated metal spheres which Hiryu keeps them stored in a specially-designed slot in his Climb Sickle.  
Now, some info dump about the options, provided once again by Striderpedia. ****

 **Option A,** called "Dipodal Saucer" or the "Mushroom-Type Robot", is the smaller of the Options. A round-shaped robot with a circular top, it serves as protection to Hiryu, spinning around him in circles while shooting ring-shaped projectiles each time he swings the Cypher. It's the only Option Hiryu can call up and control in pairs. The new version can also be used to hack electronically-locked doors. **  
Option B,** called "Tetrapodal Robo-Panther" or the "Saber Tiger-Type Option", is the strongest Option out of the three. Taking the shape of a large saber-toothed tiger or Smilodon, the tiger Option lunges at enemies and uses its raw power to crush them with its claws. Hiryu also uses it as a transport, riding on top of it as the Option rushes across areas. **  
Option C,** called "Robot Hawk" or "Hawk-type Robot", is an Option designed for aerial combat. This Option dives from above and slashes apart any enemy in its path with its sharp wings. It can also serve as a means of transportation, carrying Hiryu across areas with ease.  
The 2014 game also introduced the new Option-D. **  
Option-D,** also called the "Pilot Option", is a simple non-combat oriented Option used for navigation. Active at all times, Hiryu uses it to receive directives and scout his surroundings, as well as to analyze locked doors and find the required upgrade to continue. It can also track down power sources (as it does with the locks in Meio's Tower) and determine the specific weakness of certain enemies that aren't affected by the regular Cypher.  
This Option appears in the form of a small triangular machine which hovers over Hiryu when used.

 **As for Physical Strength and abilities.**  
Super human.  
While he rarely fights unarmed, Hiryu has mastered hand-to-hand martial to a super-human level and possess above-normal physical strength, being powerful enough to hack through his enemy's limbs using only his bare hand.  
Hiryu's physique has been honed through special training, granting him the ability to move around freely in any location or position, even while climbing or hanging off structures; as well as nimble movements and agility to perform high acrobatic moves such as cartwheel jumps and back flips. Hiryu also possess a gifted speed, likely reaching supersonic levels. He's shown moving and attacking faster than the human eye can perceive, moving across large distances in the blink of an eye and moving at such speed that he leaves several after-images of him behind.  
Finally as a character  
As an active Strider agent, all personal data such as real name, age, nationality, career and any other background information are top secret, although official speculation states that he's an Asian male somewhere around 20 years of age. The youngest Strider ever to reach Special A-Class in the organization's history, Hiryu completed the Striders' hellish training program among the top ten percentile. He is a professional expert in sabotage and assassination, as well as a master spy.  
In battle, Hiryu is incredibly focused, appearing silent but stern. Hiryu fights like a fierce deity while remaining both calm and collected emotionally. He epitomizes the strength a Special A-Class Strider possesses.


	2. Infinite Loops

1.1

Hiryu gave an uncharacteristic sigh.

He was stuck in some sort of strange phenomenon where events kept on repeating over and over again in some kind of 'loop'.  
The first few times this loops in time happened; he thought it was all some sort of trick played by Meio. And who could blame him, Meio had powers beyond of what normal humans could comprehend. One of the main reasons why he was adored as a god. But god or not, Meio would always fall before the Strider.

And that was disconcerted Hiryu.

If this was all some sort of trap or trick by Meio, why was it that only he remembered time resetting and not Meio himself? And why time only reset after he defeated Meio a second time 2000 years later and not the first time around?

No.

Whatever was causing these time Loop he found himself trapped in, it had nothing to do with the sometimes Dark God or sometimes Alien Wizard.

And that was another thing that worried him. Every time a loop happened, things would change. At first he thought it was because he remembered this wrong, again who could blame him? The loop only happens after 2000 years has passed; but that was not the case. Always something changed.

Sometimes was the infrastructure and buildings of Kazakh City, but other times his opponents would change. Solo, the "unmatched" bounty-hunter would wear a completely different armor and different weapons. Hiryu wondered if Solo was also aware of the time loop, but none of this mannerisms or usual speech pattern showed any indication if this been the case.

Other times the Four Winds would change. Specially a youngest member of the Three Sisters, Nang Pooh the South Wind. She would often change into Sai Pooh the West Wing. And other times there were Four Sisters which in turn would mean that Xi Wang Mu the Queen Mother of the West would be absent. Speaking of which, Xi Wang Mu would also alternate between being the Sisters' teacher to being also their mother.

It was all so confusing.

Still, no matter what changed, Hiryu would never forgo his duty to defeat Meio and prevent the destruction of the world under his hands.  
Descending from the sky using his Glider, Hiryu arrived at the outskirts of Kazakh City to start his infiltration.

"Beginning Mission." Hiryu announced mostly to himself.

He was ready, he was completely prepared with all his gear, from his faithful Chypher, to Kunai and options and his ever reliable Climb Sickle.

Then before taking his first step towards his mission, Hiryu paused thoughtfully.

"I wonder…" He said looking at his Sickle. Could he complete the mission without using Chypher and instead used his climbing tool as a weapon the entire way?

"It would be challenging…" Not to mention incredibly reckless. But after so long, this mission was starting to become tedious. And after so long, he needed something to keep his skills sharp.

"I guess, I could try just this once."

And with that, Hiryu strapped his Chypher onto his bag, after paying his respects to his trusty weapon, and proceeded to infiltrate the place with his Sickle in hand.

* * *

1.2

Hiryu rarely showed emotion. A true mark that represented his worth as the top of the top in the Strider program.

Special A-Class.

He had been the youngest Strider to have ever achieved such honor and prestige. A unparallel prodigy he was called. And he had believed them.

The Strider Program made him what he was, saved his life and gave him purposed. Director Kuramoto, founder and chief of the Striders and who inducted him in program, was like a father to him.

Then why? Why did Hiryu always ended up hating the Strider program?

Everytime the 'loop' happened. Hiryu would end up distancing himself from it.

Sometimes, it was a coup by a high ranking member from the Strider program to seize power from Kuramoto and use the organization to his greedy ends.

But most of the times it's the mission Kuramoto always end up assigned to him. Search and Destroy of a renegade Strider who after a difficult assignment, lost her mind and massacred 17 young Striders in training, most of them kids.

Mariya. The first woman to ever achieve the rank of A-class Strider.

Also his elder sister.

Or sometimes sister. Hiryu couldn't exactly remember, if Mariya was his real sister or just a variation this Loops brought upon. Nevertheless, it was always Hiryu who would end up with the task of slaying her. Kuramoto always selected him since there was no one else who could stop his sister's rampaging madness. And every time it was a hard as the previous one.

Hiryu knew, after all this repeats that Mariya never went mad because of a traumatic experience. She had being brainwashed by an evil corporation known as Enterprise with a weapon under the codenamed ZAIN Project.

The ZAIN machine is a brainwashing weapon. Through a small radio transmitter implanted on the neck, the machine is able to manipulate the subject by sending a certain kind of electric wave into an area of the brain known as "Crocodile's Area", from where the most basic behaviors can be issued. In this way, ZAIN destroys the mind and forces the subject into acting out of instinct rather than reason.

One of the Subjects being Mariya.

Try as he might, he could never talk his sister out of such madness. A fight always ensued with the end result being the same. With his sister dying on his arms seconds after the brainwashing effects clears her mind for her to look at him in the eyes and ask.

"Why?"

Why indeed.

Why did she have to die? Why was he the only one who could stop her rampage? Why couldn't the loop start before his infiltration of Kazakh, just so he could save her before any of this could happen? Why did he felt this anger inside of him?

Whatever the case. Hiryu would never stay with the Striders long after that. A decision Kuramoto always objected and never could change. It wasn't like he could force him to stay, and the chief would never send any agent for him knowing there wasn't anyone who could stop him.

After his departure, Hiryu would travel the world as an hermit waiting for the inevitable return of Meio. Either by devoted cultists or by the hand of his friend/rival Strider Hien.  
A borderline Special-A Strider, and another person who suffered changed thanks to the loops.

On these loops, Hien would be a childhood friend or an eternal rival, but always a brother-in-arms for various missions before the infiltration to Kazakh. Then he would either die at the hands of Meio only to be revived as a servant and secret agent, or he would join the Dark God on his own.  
Either way when the time comes, he would cross blades with Hien, alongside the revived Four Winds, and Solo.

-  
Hiryu opened his eyes after what must have been hours of deep meditation, and looked up to find the night sky adorned with countless stars. Such a serene and peaceful time he wished it could last. A foolish endeavor, since his world would always be on the verge of war between nations after Meio's demise.

Only 1990 years before Meio's return. 1990 years before he stopped him again and the whole thing happens again.

"Only 1990 years…" He whispered.

* * *

1.3

Hiryu 'Awoke' once more, his mind already preparing for the hardships that a new reset represented but then he was stuck cold in sudden realization.  
He wasn't on his way down to the outskirts of Kazakh City for his infiltration. No. He was already inside the city and not only that, he was inside what it looked like a military room.

Hiryu didn't have much time to ponder upon his surroundings, when someone else entered the room.

"Oh Hiryu! I see you are here already!"came the voice of General Mikiel, a being more machine than man and military officer in Meio's Army. A few years after Meio's appearance on the world he seized control of Kazakh City's military, government and law enforcements all in the name of his god Meio.

It took all of Hiryu's self-control in order to not confront the cyborg right there and then. There were more important things to consider, like what was he doing already inside Kazakh City and why was the General in charge of Meio's army talking to him so nonchalantly?

It was that exact moment when he was hit with a sudden influx of new memories. Or was it old memories that didn't belong to him, or did they?  
Hiryu seemed to recall the deaths of countless Striders by his own hand. Him, a traitor to his organization, a traitor to chief Kuramoto, and a traitor to Mariya. Not only that, he was Meio's top assassin and bounty hunter.

All of it made him sick.

"It seems there has been a breach into the city." Mikel informed to the silent Strider, who was still sorting through his new horrid memories. "According to the reports, it looks like we are being infiltrated by a radical group, probably to help those insurgents scum that hide through the city."

"…"

Hiryu remained silent while he processed this new information. Apparently the infiltration mission to Kazakh City was happening right now, except it wasn't him doing the infiltration since he was currently on the side of his enemies.

"Grandmaster ordered the extermination of this group. So I'm putting you in charge of this task."

But before Hiryu could even retorted to that request, a voice come from a large opened window.

"Hold it right there!"

Hiryu instantly recognized that raspy voice. It was his self-proclaimed 'Eternal Rival' in this new altered repeat, and if you think about it, in every other repeat too. Solo, the 'Unmatched' Bounty Hunter.

"What silent boy over there can do, I can do better!" Solo hovered from the outside into the room and landed with his arms crossed in front of him.

"Solo!" shouted Mikiel "This was a direct order from the Grandmaster! I will not tolerate such disresp…" but before he could finish, he was silenced by Hiryu lifting his open palm.

Strider didn't needed new memories to know how to deal with Solo. His 'Eternal Rival' has always been extremely prideful and overconfident.

"If you truly believe that, then do it!" Hiryu finally said, breaking his silence. "If you succeed, I would pay for your services myself!" Though he couldn't see his face due to the helmet the bounty hunter was wearing, the Last Strider could feel the smirk forming in Solo's face.

"So, mister Strider wants to have a bet, huh?" Solo answered back. "I'll make you regret underestimating me, Strider!"

"Talk is cheap."

"You know what isn't cheap? My contract's prize!" And with that he activated his armor, exited the window and flew away leaving Hiryu with the dumbfounded Mikiel.

"Do you think that was wise? Going after the Grandmaster's orders like that." Asked the cyborg General.

"Meio ordered for this group elimination, but he never specified when."

"Well immediately of course!" Mikiel was really taken back by the Strider's antagonistic behavior.

"I was waiting for the inevitable." Hiryu answered ominously.

"And what is that?"

And faster than you Mikiel could blink; Hiryu took out his Cypher and slashed General Mikiel with hot concentrated plasma, ending his life.

[x]

Hiryu was standing atop the tallest tower over the military compound pondering his next move.

Now that he has eliminated Mikiel earlier than ever, he couldn't fathom what can of consequences would that bring up. Not to mention this 'radical group' that was going up against Meio. Who were they? Were they a new variation that existed solely on this strange repeat of events? Or were they Striders?

That last one gave him a pause. He had been responsible for the extermination of the Striders. He couldn't believe to have ever done that, but these memories he now had told him he did.

Hiryu would never do that, no matter how angry he got with the organization after failing his sister and order him to kill her for them. But apparently he did. And for that exact same reason.

Apparently in this repeat, Mariya's brainwashing took place years before this mission against Meio was ever a thing instead of months after it. Because of this, he had been seduced by the dark powers Meio had to offer.

In exchange for eradicating the Striders and served as his top assassin, Meio would bring back his sister back to life, after his plans that he had been brewing in Kazakh City finally came to fruition.

And he remembered his did his duty with a small degree of glee and satisfaction.

All this conflicting memories made Hiryu doubt his sanity.

He knew how things were supposed to happen, but now he remembered worshiping Meio as a deity. And he could still part of that worship on the back of his mind.

What was real? What should he do?

[x]

Hiryu stood still trying to make sense of the mess that was his memories, until a big explosion on the distance caught his attention. It came from the Perimeter Wall, a wall that separated the civilian side of the city from the military complexes.

Moving purely out of instinct, Hiryu ran jumped from roof to roof and ran towards the explosion.

When he arrived, Hiryu found a scene that he wouldn't have believed in. The Three Sisters were fighting Solo in what it looked like a battle to the end.

The Sisters moved in magnificent dance-like movements but with lethal efficiency. He would know since he had been on the receiving end, but this has been the first time he had seen them from an outsider perspective. And to tell the truth, it was kind of enchanting to watch.

The fight didn't last much longer since the combined strength of the Sisters plus their impeccable teamwork meant that Solo didn't have a chance since the very beginning.

Once he knew he was done for, Solo tried to escape by flying away and fight another day; but before he could get too far, a Kunai came flying from behind of him and imbedded itself into his propulsion device that allowed him flight causing it to malfunction, sending Solo to his doom in a fiery explosion.

However, that last attack, didn't went unnoticed by one of the Sister, who quickly turned around towards the direction the Kunai flew down with her weapon ready.

"Who are you?!" said the youngest of the Sisters, Nang Pooh pointing her _Fāng tiān j_ _ǐ_ (Sky Piercing Halberd) towards him. "Are you another one of Meio's assassins?" She asked in a cold accusatory manner.

"Well, at least this one is way cuter than that last one!" The Eldest sister, Pei Pooh, said in a carefree manner, but both of her _Jizhaorui_ ( _Chicken Claw Piercers_ ) were held tightly on her hands.

Ignoring what her sister's commentary Ton Pooh, middle sister and leader of the trio, stepped out and in front of her sisters taking the point position. "Tell us who you are and what you want or we will kill you!" She said showing that fiery temper she was known for while she prepared her single Lín jiǎo dāo (Unicorn's Horn Sword) to strike at moment's notice.

"No, I am not one of Meio's Assassins." Hiryu replied. "I am here to take him down. I assume you are here to do the same, aren't you?"

"Really? What a coincidence!" Pei visually relaxed only to be scolded by her little sister.

"Do not drop your guard; this could be some kind of trick." Nang kept her icy glare on the stranger before them watching every movement.

"I assure you, this is no trick."

"Prove it!" Ton once gain step forward anxiously ready to deliver the first blow.

Hiryu mentally sighed; he should have known trying to talk with the Winds would have resulted difficult. He only wanted to confirm if the Sisters were the so called radical group that was against Meio's tyrannical rule. And seeing their reactions and subtle body language he could tell they were that group.

Now that he knew, Hiryu pondered his next move.

He could simply leave and defeat Meio, like he always did but with the sisters running around the whole place, who knew what could happen. They could end up interfering with his fight and cause Meio to complete his plan of global scale genocide and get the four of them killed.

Eliminating them was out of the table, he couldn't bring himself to kill them despite them trying to kill him in previous repeats. He could try leaving them unconscious, but if he did that, they run a high chance of being spotted by some enemy drone and executed on the spot.

No. His only option was join forces. That way he could watch over them and make sure nothing bad happened to them and the mission.  
The only problem was convincing them on his plan.

"Answer me!" Ton shouted after Hiryu's silence ticked on her nerves.

Hiryu's response was to slowly lift his right hand towards a hidden button on his facemask around where his ear was. After a small click, his facemask receded exposing his lower face and neck.

Pei showed a small smirk and whispered not so inconspicuously towards his youngest sister. " _See. I told you he was a cutie_."Only for Nang to glare at her with an annoyed look that said. " _Really? Right now?_ "

Both Hiryu and Ton ignored that exchange, as Hiryu stepped closer Ton and him.

"Hey, don't step any closer or I'll kill you. I'm serious." Ton warned.

Then in a blink of an eye, Hiryu appeared directly in front Ton, as if he just suddenly teleported. And before she could even move to react, Hiryu brought the edge of her sword to his exposed neck.

"Here, now I'm at your mercy. Now look into my eyes and see if I'm lying or not." Hiryu said without a hint of fear on his voice.

Ton, not having fully recovered from the initial surprised, moved in auto-pilot and did just that. She didn't notice it before, but the color of the eyes, of the man with her sword up his neck, were a piercing red. Never before had she seen such an exotic eye color. It was mesmerizing to see. She kept staring until she heard the voice of one of her sisters.

"Ton, how much longer are you going to keep staring?" Pei complained causing her little sister to finally snap out of her spell.

Ton tried her hardest to prevent a blush from forming on her face. She couldn't believe she was stood staring like she did.

"He's not lying!" She finally said while lowering her sword, and then she turned her head away from the red eyed man to look at her sister.

"Are you sure? He could've used some sort of spell." Asked the overly cautious Nang.

"I'm sure." Despite getting lost on his eyes, Ton didn't feel any sort of deception or evil intent from the man.

"Ok, you are the leader; it is your call if we can trust this man."

"I said that he is not lying, but I never said we could trust him!" Ton then turned back and positioned her sword back up to the neck of an unmoving Hiryu. "Tell us what is it that you want from us?"

"I came here to propose an alliance; to join forces and put a stop to Meio's rule." Hiryu answered still not intimidated in the slightest.

Hiryu then proceeded to explain to them Meio's plan of Global annihilation in order to have a 'blank slate' to create he so called new and perfect humanity that were only loyal to him, and how he had find out such info.

Of course he couldn't tell them about their world repeating over and over again the same events, so he just vague explanations and half truths for them to believe him. Hiryu, being the trained Strider that he was, never faltered under the scrutinizing eyes of the Sisters.

"If half of what you said is true, then this mission is more dangerous than we initially thought." Pei said unnerved at the prospect of facing a literal god in combat. She always thought that the stories about Meio were exaggerated tales in order to keep the population under his control.

"Yes, but if we retreat now, the whole world would come to an end and humanity will become extinct." Nang tried to keep her emotion under control, but fear kept crawling into her voice.

"So, we are hopeless then." Ton continued where her sisters left off and admitted defeat.

"No!"

That is until Hiryu shouted and snapped them out of their stupor.

"We can still fight, and bring Meio down. But only if we do this together." Well, technically he could do it all on his own, but he could risk on an unknown outcome if he left the three of them at their own devices.

"How can you be so sure?" Ton asked barely clinging into hope for the future.

"Because…I am a Strider!"

That caused all of the Sisters to gasp in surprised.

"I thought they were eradicated by Meio!" Nang pointed out cynically almost making Hiryu wince.

"No. He ordered his forces to eliminate the Strider, because he was afraid of them stopping him before he could achieve his goal." Hiryu lied. But it was necessary, he needed them to be focused and not fall into despair. "I was there when it happened, and now I'm the last of the Striders."

And truth to be told, Hiryu could see light returning into their eyes. He just needed to give them another push.

"I can defeat Meio and bring his era of tyranny down, but I need all the help I can get. Let us join forces to put a stop to this mad man."  
Then Hiryu finished with something his sister Miraya would say to him.

"I believe in you."

In an instant he could feel the fire in their eyes burn brighter with determination.

"Yes, let's!" Ton declared with power. "God or not we will put an end to Meio once and for all!" Then she felt the hand of her sister Nang rest on her shoulder.

"If you go to battle, I shall follow you." Nang said. "You are our leader, but more importantly you are my sister."

Not to be left out, Pei also spoke her piece. "Don't count me out. I will not let my litter sisters out there with her big sister with them."

And with that the tree sister shared the moment with a smile.

Hiryu not being one for such scenes, especially when they involved his enemies who he had caused their death many times before, activated his face mask once more.

"Come! Let us not waste more time." Hiryu turned around from the scene and prepared to leave.

"Wait a second Strider!" Ton stopped him. "You haven't told us your name."

The Strider remained silent for a few seconds and said.

"Hiryu. Special-A Class Strider Hiryu."


	3. Meeting the Admin

2.1

Strider Hiryu 'awoke' once again in a completely different manner than normal. Except this time he was in Lotus in the middle of a meditative trance. He found this new awakening weird, but not enough to exit the trance. No, for the time being, he would continue with the soothing and relaxing meditation.

" _I wish all repeats could begin as relaxing as this one_."

Later, Hiryu, after what could have been hours of deep meditation, finally opened his eyes to a very peculiar scene.

He was seated on a pillow over a tatami near a low wooden table with a tea set on top and a man sitting over to the other side drinking what appeared to be tea.

The man had extremely long black straight hair with and almost equally long black beard, wearing green robes not much different to what a monk would wear.

"Ah, I see you are finally done meditating." The man said lowering his cup, "Good. It is important to let your mind and soul rest." Then he took another sip, "It also doesn't hurt to reflect upon the Dharma and the Five Percepts."

Hiryu, stared at the strange drinking man in silence trying to make sense of this strange scenario.

"I'm sure, you have a lot of questions, some that I may answer some I may not; but before that, may I offer you a cup of tea? Whatever kind you like, I'm sure I have it."

Hiryu, kept staring in silence. He couldn't detect any malicious intent from the man sitting in front of him. He still had some reservations, but it was bad manners to refuse a cup of tea.

"Tieguanyin" Hiryu finally said, much to the surprised amusement of the offering man.

"The Iron Goddess…?* I would've assumed you'd select a more traditional Japanese tea." The man said with a smile. Then, he gently picked up the teapot on the middle of the table and slowly served the tea. "Here, I hope you enjoy it."

Hiryu looked curiously at his cup of tea. Going by appearance, it certainly looked like Tieguanyin. The Strider than deactivated his facemask to examine the aroma of the tea and discovered that it indeed smelled like Tieguanyin.

Just how did the man poured the exact kind of tea he wanted if Hiryu just asked for it.

Strider still couldn't detect any sort of trap or deception coming from the man, be he couldn't help it to feel slightly paranoid.

"You better hurry up, or you wouldn't like it if it gets cold." The man insisted with a natural smile on his face. A smile of someone who could move armies, not by blindly adoration or fear, but with kindness and wisdom.

Visibly relaxing, Hiryu decided to ignored the paranoia for now and brought the still hot cup of tea to his lips.

"Delicious." It was all that Hiryu said.

After various cups of tea were drunk, the atmosphere of the room felt less and tense and conversation could finally start.

"Now that the tea is finished, I believe it is time for us to talk." The man said with a very formal tone. Then he pulled what it looked like a booklet from his robes. "But before that, I think it is imperative that you read this. After that I'll try to answer your questions the best I can."

After Hiryu took the booklet from the man, he read the title.

So You Are Looping

 _A Short Guide by Twilight Sparkle._

"Twilight…Sparkle?" Hiryu couldn't help but wonder out-loud.

"Oh yes, she is a very intelligent and capable little pony." The man gave a small laugh only to be received by complete silence from Hiryu's part. "Something that matters?"

"…"

"…"

"W..what's a pony?" Hiryu finally asked.

"Oh I sorry forgot! Ponies became extinct in your world after _his_ ascension to power."

After a half an hour of reading and re-reading trying to process the information within, the tired Strider finally put the booklet down.

He knew that the author tried to simplify the explanations so that anyone was capable of understand each concept, but because of this a lot of details were lost. So he decided to talk the man in front of him to clear his doubts.

It was very long talk about what Yggdrasil was and who it worked, also the current state of the multiverse, the nature of the Loops and the people working to correct what was currently malfunctioning.

"So are you one of the gods who helps administrate the multiverse?"

"My name is Guan-Yu, but you may also know me as Kuan Ti." When he was only met with the curious look from Hiryu, Guan-Yu quickly corrected himself.

"Ah, I almost forgot. During Meio's ascension to power, most major religions and temples in your world became obsolete and abandoned. Only to be practiced by the most devoted. No wonder you would never have heard of me before, despite living in Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia and China in your travels, during the 2000 years before Meio's return."

"But I digress." Guan Yu said faking a cough. "I'm not exactly one of the most 'Active' Admins, in fact I spent most of my time delving into finding Sanctuary and possible answers in meditation about the Saṃsāra and the Dharma. It wasn't until your particular universe started Looping that I began to take a small active role."

"Why? Why my universe in particular?" asked Hiryu. What made his world so unique that caught the interest of the deity?

"Who knows? I could have been Karma that decided that!"The deity joked and shrugged. While Hiryu remained silent, not really finding his jokes all that funny. "The point, is that I may be new at this Admin position and that I'm here for you young Strider."

"Then please tell me! I need to know what my Baseline Loop is. I can't seem to remember correctly."

Then the ambient of the room turned heavy and Guan-Yu took on a more solemn expression. "I heard there is a term for what you are experiencing. Disassociative Loop Identity Disorder, I believe."

"I care not for the name!" Hiryu said very uncharacteristically raising his voice. "I want to know…I want to know…"

"You want to know about your sister."Guan-Yu pointed out for him. "You want to know if she is real or just a product of a variant loop, correct?"

"Yes, please Great God, tell me about my sister!" Hiryu sitting in seiza position, bowed to him until his forehead was touching the floor. The room fell into silence while Hiryu waited patiently for the god to grant his plea. They remained like that for a whole minute until Guan-Yu finally broke the silence with a big, heavy sigh.

"Hiryu," He began. "That answer involves delicate information about how your universe came to be the way it is now. You are not ready for that kind of knowledge and answering what you asked for could be dangerous for you and your loop."

"But…"

"No but's, young Strider! You are not ready yet!" Guan-Yu declared with the steel that could command an army of one million men.

"I understand Great God!" Hiryu bowed down once more just like before. "Sorry for stepping beyond my boundaries!"

"Now, now, don't be that way. Get up, and stop calling me Great God. I'm not THAT high in the hierarchy of divine deities. " Guan-Yu reassured the young warrior. "Besides, this doesn't mean I will never tell you. You aren't ready yet, means that you still need to grow as a person."

"And how do I do that, Grea…Guan-Yu?"

"Young Hiryu. You have been Looping for a while now, but in terms of other Loopers you are still an infant. And since you have never left your home Loop before, you like the experiences and perspective other universes have to offer."

"Not all universes are as bleak as yours, Hiryu."Guan-Yu sad with a sad tone, but it only lasted for a second. "Some are filled with beauty and wonders beyond your imagination. There is so much for you to learn and experience."

"So what I need is more training." Hiryu simplified.

"More like 'broading your horizons'." Guan-Yu corrected. "That's is why I am going to talk with my fellow Admins and try to get you to loop in a series of Fused Loops." Guan-Yu said with a smile, but internally he was dreading what other admins might ask him to do to repay the favor. He only hoped that they wouldn't go overboard since he was a 'rookie'.

"Thank you, Guan-Yu." Hiryu thanked they deity with a small short bow.

"Now, remember. The nature of the Loops is mostly random and you could Loop in universes that are bleaker and tougher than you own. Now please, could you show me your sphere where you store your Option-D?"

Hiryu didn't know exactly why Guan-Yu wanted to see his navigational tool, but he comply nonetheless. Moving his hand towards a sheath strapped to his left shoulder, Hiryu pulled out his Climbing Sickle which had all of his Options stored.

After activating Option-D, a small triangular machine appeared and hovered over Hiryu for a few seconds before it hovered towards Guan-Yu opened hand. Suddenly the device was enveloped in a small sphere of light for a few moments, before reappearing visually unchanged.

"I just 'Updated' your Option." Guan-Yu explained. Before Hiryu could even ask, "More specifically, the range of it mapping and radar system. Just remember, some of the most technologically advanced people in the Loops could use this to pinpoint your location track you. So be careful when you used it."

Hiryu nodded in appreciation as his Option returned to its spherical form and flew back into the Climbing Sickle "Understood. Thank you very much."

Hiryu felt like he just accepted a mission from Hq. And that's how he was going to treat it. He had to explore this Loops and 'broaden his horizons' in order to find answers to his questions.

"Good. Now go and live a little!" Guan-Yu bided him good luck with his hand.

"Roger!"

"Ah, but before that let's have some more tea!"

"Hn." Hiryu nodded and took another cup of Tieguanyin.


	4. Strider 1-2

3.1

Hiryu 'Awoke' in the most surprising manner yet; falling and submerging into cold water. Immediately his survivals instincts kicked in and quickly went towards the surface for precious air. After a few gasps of air, Hiryu finally recovered enough to notice a white-Gi wearing man walking towards him to offer a hand.

"Hey, you all right?" Then man asked as he helped the wet Strider out of the Spring.

"Yes, thank you for your help." Hiryu said in a voice much different than his own and quickly brought his hand to his throat. "My voice…" It sounded very…

"Not only your voice; your whole body has change." The man that helped him answered as he held a small mirror on his hand. "You fell on the _Nyannīchuan_!"

"The Spring of Drowned Girl…?" repeated dumbfounded by his appearance. He looked like an exact copy of his sister Mariya. How was this even possible?

"It is a Magic Curse." The man began explaining, "Don't worry,it only activates when you are splashed with cold water; you can turn back to normal with hot water." As he finished his explanation, he took a thermo out, and poured hot water over the now female Hiryu. "Also, you will not carry the curse to other loops. Just on this one."

The transformation was instantaneous, and Hiryu returned to his normal self. Well, mostly normal, he did notice from the mirror that he looked younger than normal. Nevertheless he was grateful for the help.

"Thank you, once again."

"Hey, don't sweat it. It tends to happen a lot in my Loop." Then the man stopped for a second to take a good look at him. "Are you a new Looper? I don't seem to recognize you." The now cursed boy looked kinda familiar, which wasn't surprising with the number of loops he had.

"Hn." Hiryu responded with a nod.

"Is this your first Loop out of your world?" Internally the man was already preparing to give the 'Welcome to the Multiverse' talk. ' _Wait, maybe I still have some of those booklets Twilight made_.'

"Yes. But Guan-Yu didn't warn me of this kind of awakenings."

Thanks to his extensive knowledge, the man quickly recognized the name Guan-Yu, the Chinese God of War. Which either meant that it was this boy's Admin or possible Anchor of his Loop.

"Yeah well, this one is one of the more popular one's in my Loop." The man said while scratching the back of his head. "By the way, my name is Ranma Saotome, this Loop's Anchor and, according to this Loop's memories, I am your father." Which meant Ramna was taking the place of his own father.

Hiryu, blinked perplexed by that statement, until the pre-awake memories hit him, which confirmed what Ranma said. "An honor, Great Ranma Saotome!" He greeted with a long bow. "My name is Hiryu." Guan-Yu had told him, how the man currently in front of him, was the Original Looper. A man who had Looped for almost an eternity. So he paid the proper respect to the man.

"No need to be so formal, man!" Ranma assured him. He was never one to like formalities and strict forms of conduct. "Just call me Ranma, no honorifics needed."

"Understood, Ranma."

"Now, Hiryu. Tell me a little about yourself!"

Having a conversation with Hiryu was a difficult task since he was a very silent and serious person, but for Ranma, having to deal with all sort of assortment of people, knew how to get people like him to slowly open.

It was a slow process, but since they were traveling from China to Japan on boat. They had time to spend.

As they talked, Ranma learned about Hiryu and the trouble he was having with his 'baseline' and how now, after meeting with his Admin, he was on a quest to 'broaden his horizons' in order to found the answer to his questions.

"Wow, that's heavy." Ranma comforted Hiryu and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder."But I'm sure you can do it. And if you run into trouble you can always ask for help from fellow loopers. In fact, there is a Loop that serves as a Sanctuary, for some of us that need a place to unwind and have a peaceful time."

"Thanks." Though he was mostly a loner, Hiryu felt reassured that he wasn't exactly alone on this quest.

"And if you feel restless, I'll be always open for a sparring match!" Ranma knew that sometime a good fight was all that was needed to get something out of the system. Besides, he also wanted to see how strong Hiryu really was after he heard how he always defeated his Loop's bad guy who was a so called God.

"I'll have that in mind." Hiryu whispered in appreciation and Ranma feel a ghost of a smile almost formed on his lips from behind his red scarf.

Ranma had asked about the scarf before, and Hiryu explained to him that he felt almost naked without his face-mask, but since he didn't have it in this loop, he had to settle for a scarf. Of course this promoted a conversation about Subspace Pockets.

Hiryu confess that he forgot to carry a set of his usual outfit since he always looped in them. That's why he ended up wearing Ranma's usual outfit plus scarf.

"Ranma? May I ask you a question?" Hiryu asked after a few minutes of silence. "Why are we headed towards Japan?"

It was a good question; in fact Ranma didn't have an exact reason for it. He was headed there because by now it was part of the routine, unless he had planed something beforehand. Ranma could've remained in China and go around with Hiryu whenever they pleased. But the boy that was currently his son followed him without really question it until now.

"Sorry, guess I was caught in the routine." Ranma apologized. "I didn't have anything planned for this Loop, so I kinda followed the motions. Sorry, should've asked where do you wanted to go and what you wanted to do. "

"Guan-Yu said that I needed to experience new things." Hiryu began, "Going with the established events of the Baseline, suits that purpose."

For a second, Ranma was worried that Hiryu may end up developing Setsuna Syndrome, but he reasoned that since he had experienced only battles for the fate of the world and lived in a world that always was a constant state of conflict or wars, he had retreated in a more serious persona of himself and had forgotten how to have 'fun' or been spontaneous.

And if they followed Ranma's baseline, especially if Hiryu was taking his place, there were going to be 'fun' times ahead.

' _Besides, this guy could really learn something about the whole thing_.' Ranma thought as he was already forming plans for Hiryu to have the whole "Ranma Experience." ' _A shame, I didn't take him to the Amazon Village_.'

"Well then, let's visit some old family friends."Ranma said with a smile only for a second until he realized he had no memory of Soun Tendo as a fellow trainee on the Anything Goes Martial Arts. No. His memory was of someone whom he didn't recognize.

Then Ranma just shrugged, either way, things would certainly be interesting.

* * *

"Oh my! What a handsome young man your son is , Ranma!" A beautiful white haired woman said very excitedly with a slight Chinese accent. "He takes a lot after his father!"

"Why thank you. And I have to say that your daughters are equally as beautiful as their mother, Xi Wang." Ranma said to the woman, whom he apparently trained with for years under Master Kuramoto, a replacement for Happosai in this Loop.

"My, my, always the charmer!" Xi Wang, the replacement for Soun in this loop answered playfully. Then the two adults in the room shared a laugh.

While this was going on, Hiryu remained seated in Seiza position stiff as a board, not really sure what to think about this strange turn of events.

Apparently his 'father' Ranma brought him along to visit an old friend and met her family. But it turns out that this old friend of his father was being replaced by Xi Wang Mu the _Queen Mother of the West._ One of his various enemies from his home Loop.

But what worried him the most was the other three occupants of the room.

"Now Hiryu my dear, I want you to meet my daughters!" The matriarch said enthusiastically. Something that Hiryu had never seen in his own loop.

"This is my eldest daughter, Pei Pooh! She's eighteen years old." Xi introduced him to her daughter.

"Hello there, cutie!" Then West Wind gave Hiryu a flirty wink.

"Next is my second daughter, Ton Pooh! She's seventeen." Said girl gave him a suspicious look.

"Nice to meet you." The East Wind greeted not really hiding how she felt about been there, instead of in the Dojo training.

"And finally my youngest daughter, Nang Pooh. And she's sixteen." The final daughter and South Wind, gave Hiryu a cold expressionless look and said nothing.

"Now that you have met my daughters, choose one of them to be your future wife!" Xi Wang announced much to the shock of everyone.

"WHAT!"

Meanwhile, Ranma internally laughed at the dumbfounded expression on Hiryu's face.

' _This is Loop going to be a fun one._ '

* * *

Ranma looked form inside the living room towards where his 'son' was. Hiryu was sitting outside the house next to the koi pond. He had been sitting there for several hours and the sky was already darkening.

It appeared that Hiryu was in deep meditation, probably a way to cope from the events from earlier.

'Not really the reaction I was hoping for, but it wasn't totally unexpected.' Ranma thought as he replayed the events that happened after the announcement in his mind.

 **[Flashback]**

The reactions from the three sisters were what Ranma had expected. The three of them were against the announcement, and each something to say about it.

"Marriage!?" Ton, the middle sister and the most vocal of the three, was the first to voice her opinion." Are you saying one of use has to marry a complete stranger?!" Then she turned her gaze towards the boy in question. "He could be a weirdo for all that we know!"

"What the heck, Mom? You said we will be meeting a friend of yours and his son, you never mention anything about marriage!" Next was Pei, the eldest sister. Although she had being acting flirty before, she was against the idea of marriage like her sister before him.

"Mother, I oppose of this arrangement." The youngest, Nang, finally said. Her reaction although a lot more calmed than the previous two, still held an icy tone.  
The girls would've continued to raise more and more objections if their mother hadn't intervened.

"Girls!" Xi Wang didn't shout, but her words reverberated throughout the house, silencing the room in an instant. "Both Ranma and I agreed years ago that we would unite the schools for the Anything Goes Martial Arts Style by arranging a marriage between our children."

"But, Mother…"one of them tried to said only to be interrupted.

"This is a matter of family honor!" This time Xi really did raised her voice to show how serous she was about it. "Unless you want to bring dishonor to all of us and our ancestors, one of you will have to marry Ranma's son." The mood of the room became a rather heavy one, and no one dared to move for fear of incurring into the wrath of Queen Mother. Well, no one except Ranma of course.

"Put your worries to rest, girls."Ramna reassured them. "One of you may marry my son, but we never said it had to be tomorrow. You are still young and still in school. For now, it is a simple engagement. The wedding can wait until you are finished with your studies." Though amusing, Ranma wasn't going to allow this start in a bleaker note than his 'baseline.' Besides, he could tell Xi Wang was a more of an strict authority figure than Soun Tendo ever was.

"My, my, Ranma, how clever. I couldn't have explained it better if I tried."Xi said as she sent a playful smile his way. After that she turned her gaze towards Hiryu. "Now my dear boy, choose one of my daughters as your fiancée."

Hiryu during all of this was still stiff as a board and didn't know what to say. Luckily for him, he didn't have to say anything, because the sisters decided to intervene once more.

"I suggest that Ton should be the one!" Pei proposed much to the surprise of said sister.

"What!?"

"I agree with Pei, Ton is the perfect candidate." Nang added agreeing with his eldest sister.

"What!? You too. Nang?!" Ton asked in disbelief. She had expected her elder sister to try and pass off the engagement to either Nang or her, but she couldn't believe her little sister was backing Pei's suggestion.

"Think about it!" Nang said once again lifting her fingers as she made all her points. "For the future success of our Dojo, the future Head must be a strong person with great skills in leadership, and an equally talented wife. Of all of us, you have always been the most enthusiastic and talented regarding the Art, and the unspoken leader of the three."

"True, true!" Pei nodded in agreement, "Besides, Nang here is too shy for a relationship, and I'm too much of a free spirit to expect me to tie the knot."

'Too much of a slut, if you ask me.' Ton muttered in anger.

"Hmm. Your sisters do bring very good points." Xi Wang pondered for a few with a pensive look on her brow, until she finally said. "It is decided, Ton you will marry Hiryu, and unite our schools!" Then she turned to look at her future son-in-law. "You don't object, do you?"

"I-I…" He silent boy tried to speak but he was quickly interrupted.

"Perfect! Now, from now on you and Ton are engaged!" She declared with a broad smile. "Now you two get bonding and get to know each other."

"But Mom, I…!"

"Now that that's over with! Ranma, why don't you tell us about your trip to my homeland of China?"

"Well, since you asked…Have you heard of the sacred training grounds of Jusenkyo?"

What followed was talk with demonstrations about Jusenkyo and how the curses gained at that place work. It remained quite short since Ranma had Eons of experience doing this talk.

"Oh my, not even you could remain safe that horrid place." Xi Wang, knew about the cursed springs, but hoped that after moving to Japan she would never had to hear again from that place and a certain 'village' that was nearby.

"Although it is a pain to be cursed, ours aren't all that bad." They could've fallen on the Spring of Drowned Yeti-riding-Bull-carrying-Crane-and-Eel In previous loops Ranma had fallen in that spring and it wasn't a pretty experience. He much more prefer being a Panda, despite reminding him of his deadbeat father, at least his way he could try to be a 'Kung Fu Panda' like a certain someone he had met before.

Xi Wang nodded in understanding, and slight pity. Ranma could see she really felt for her dear old friend and son. Her daughters not so much.

"So you're saying that not only I'm engaged to a stranger, he is also a freak?" Ton predictably fell into the 'Akane' response. "Just my luck."

"Wow, bullet dodged! Right, Nang?" Pei grinned; one third relieved, two thirds amused by the revelation. A semi-Nabiki response.

"Indeed!" Was all that Nang said in response. Not very Kasumi-like in gentleness but a 10 for the quiet-like manner.

Yep. These girls were very much like the Tendo but still different. Kinda like drinking lemon flavored Coke.

"Girls! You know better than to mock on others misfortune!" The Mother Queen put her three daughters back to place. "Good. Now, as I was about to say; though tragic, this problem isn't an excuse to try and break the engagement. Marriage isn't always easy, and couples must learn to overcome problems and tragedy together."

"Couldn't say it better if I tried." Ranma agreed with the matriarch. Finally cementing in his mind how much different of a household this was going to be.

"Now how about some tea?" Xi quickly changed her mood again and stood up and left for the kitchen.

"No thanks, I'll be going back to my room!" Pei shouted and was the first one to bail out of the room. Quickly followed by Nang just said 'So do I' and left the room.

"If you need me Mother, I'll be in the Dojo training." And with a head turn she left the room, not unlike Akane except without the stomping.

"I'd like some tea, Xi!" said Ranma. "What about you, Hir…" He trailed off when he realized that his 'son' left the room in favor of seating outside next to the Koi pond.

Moments later, Xi Wang returned with a tea set and placed in the table. "I apologize for the rude behavior of my daughters; I don't know what came to them. They are usually much more well-behaved."

"No need to apologize." Ranma reassured her. "The engagement took them by surprise, I'm sure that by tomorrow your daughter Ton would warm up to the idea." It was clear that she wouldn't but Ranma was just trying to be gentle.

"I hope so." Xi then began pouring the tea. "At least your boy took the news better than her. You taught him rather well. He is a good boy and a gentleman."

"Yeah, I think you are right." Ranma sighed as he took his cup and slowly drank it.

 **[Flashback End]**

Ranma kept staring until he finally decided to confront Hiryu about it.

"Hey, Hiryu, how are you holding up?" Ranma asked as he approached the sitting boy who remained silent. "This whole thing about the arranged marriage must have blindsided you. I apologize for that."

"…" What he got in response was more silence.

"But you did say you wanted to see how the baseline events, and well, here we are. Except that you are taking my place and, correct me if I'm wrong, people from your Loop are the ones replacing the Tendo family."

"So…wanna talk about it? If you want we can bail out and do something you want to do." That last sentence was the one that cause Hiryu to finally open his eyes to look at him.

"Your concern is appreciated, but I've decided to go on with the engagement." Hiryu finally said. "It is for our family honor after all, 'father'."

Ranma was honestly surprised by that response. "You know you don't have to strictly commit to the events of my baseline. We may be family and may have made a promise on our honor, but that was a 'Pre-Awake' us. You don't have to stick to it if you don't want to."

"I know. But I still will see this engagement through."

The way this was going, Ranma was getting vibes of the first stage of Setsuna Syndrome. Wait, Setsuna only cared to maintain her own baseline Loop, despite of others thought or wanted. Hiryu was currently was trying way to recreate and maintain a baseline from a foreign Loop despite of he probably thought or wanted for himself.

Maybe he should call this the Strider Syndrome.

After a sigh, Ranma calmly began. "Hiryu, I'll say it one more time. You don't have to force yourself to do this. Sticking to a baseline so strictly will not grant you the perspective or answers you are looking for, it will only tear you down. So don't do this to yourself."

After a long minute of silence, Hiryu looked at Ranma in the eye.

"As far as the confusing remnants and variations of my past let me remember, I never had to uphold family honor in this manner before" Hiryu answered, making Ranma raise an eyebrow questioningly.

"I had to uphold the honor for my teacher and father figure by becoming the best Strider I could be; Upheld the honor of the Striders by never shying away from any mission they send me on: Reconnaissance, Infiltration, Demolition and Assassination; uphold the honor of my fallen comrades by finishing the mission despite the losses; upheld the Honor of the Souls of murdered children by killing my own sister on a mission that assigned to me because I was the only one capable of doing so." Ranma could feel the emotion hidden beneath his monotone voice. Hiryu had told him bits and pieces of his past and how convoluted his memories were. Especially those regarding his sister and if she was real or a variation on the loops. But now it was the first time, Hiryu had told him that he was forced into kill her. "And I upheld the honor of my sister Mariya by renouncing from the organization that made me who I was and taught me what I knew. Because of that I threw away the honor I once held before, including my own."

Ranma remained stunned in silence. He had no idea that the past behind Hiryu was so harsh. Now he could see where Hiryu was coming from.

"Please do not let me throw away any more."

All of this caused Ranma to sigh and rubbed his temples. "Ok, we do it your way. But I just want you to remember what I told you about sticking too close to baseline, especially those that are not your own. Do you understand?"

"Understood."

"Now, I think it's time for you to clean up a little bit and prepare for Dinner which would by served in probably half an hour."

"Roger. I will do so immediately." And with that, Strider left the place where he had been sitting for hours and went back to the house, while Ranma just stared at his retreating back.

Strider Hiryu certainly had a lot of issues to work out. If he didn't he would end up snapping, like some of the more unfortunate Loopers out there. Lucky for that boy. No, sorry, that man. He had Ranma to help work some of those off.

Also a future visit to Equestria should help to iron out some of those issues too.

Then Ranma's train of thought was interrupted by a scream coming from the house.

"YOU PERVERT! GET OUT OF HERE!" Ranma recognized that voice; it was Hiryu's fiancée, Ton.

What followed were more sounds of things been thrown and all over the place, before the other sister joined in with the fun.

"YOU JUST GOT ENGAGED AND YOU ALREADY HAVING FUN, TON?"

"YOU DARE TO TRY AND TOUCH MY SISTER YOU BEAST, I'LL SKEWER YOU!"

"GIRLS, PLEASE TRY NOT TO DESTROY THE HOUSE!"

Ranma couldn't help but laugh.

"It really is funny when it is not happening to me."

Still, he felt sorry for Hiryu because apparently in this Loop, it wasn't just one but the Three Sisters who were into Martial Arts. And with access to more pointy weapons too. Ouch.

"I wonder how he would react when I tell him he has to go to school after the weekend is over."

* * *

After the hectic events from the last weekend on the residence of the 'Four Winds', it was Monday. And that meant that it was the beginning of the school week. Because of that, Ranma and Hiryu were having a chat, inside the room they shared.

"So this is your first time going to an actual school?" Ranma asked to Hiryu was he was putting on a gakuran, something Ranma personally never wore in the baseline. Gotta admit that it look good on Hiryu. "You should know that at this time of the year, no one else will be wearing their jackets."

"Hn." Hiryu acknowledged Ranma but made no motion to take the jacket off. "The weather is no problem for me." He had fallen and submerged in hot lava before, so the sun in the sky was no inconvenience.

"Whatever." Ranma said not really caring if the boy wore a jacket or not. "So are you excited to attend school?"

"All my education came from the Strider Program; they taught me what I needed to know in order to become an unparalleled Mercenary." Hiryu had told him about it before. How he was trained not only on the arts of infiltration and assassination, but in things like math, literature, geography, medicine, biology, chemistry, computer skills like programming and Ranma, that sounded a lot like the Ninja Academy from Naruto's Loop, except more technologically advanced. Which made sense since Hiryu was from the year 2048, or the year 0048 of Meio, as it was more commonly known, according to the Strider.

"But I have seen schools before," Hiryu said, "It was during my travels in Asia, more specifically, Mongolia. I was passing through a small rural village and saw a small house where a young woman taught little children how to read."

"What about the big cities?" Ranma asked curious.

"I generally stay away from those decadents metal jungles." Hiryu preferred much more the quiet and tranquility on the remote parts of the earth, than being stuck inside then a metropolis filled with crime and vice.

The room was impregnated with silence. Ranma didn't know what to respond about to that. Ok sure, he had a lot of responses; he had been everywhere and seen everything the multiverse had to offer, so he could relate to him. But he doubt Hiryu wanted any pity talk from him. At least not now, he would take care of that when the first holiday came around so he could took the Strider to a little camping trip to train.

"Anyway…" Ranma broke the silence first, "As you know, this Loop is a lot more different to what could be considered 'normal'. Around here, Martial Artist can get away with doing extraordinary feats and ridiculous crap, like carry weapons around as if it were nothing. And fights can start at any moment, with tons of collateral damage as result."

"So try to moderate the use of your fighting skills to a reasonable level."Ranma advised, "So nothing that can level the entire district, okay?" Hiryu, blinked in confusion at that sentence. He couldn't tell if Ranma was serious or if it was a joke from the Eccentric Looper. "Oh, also, nothing too technologically advanced. Having to explain a giant robot attack to the army isn't very fun, trust me on that one."

"Understood." That meant he couldn't use his Options freely; probably including his Chypher too; so hand-to-hand combat would have to suffice in this loop.

"Good. Now let's head down for breakfast. You don't want to be late for your first day at school, do you?"

[x]

Breakfast with the Pooh family had been similar to what would be like with the Tendo's. It was mostly quiet by the exception of Xi Wang trying to prompt her daughters into conversation with small talk. A futile attempt, since the atmosphere in the room was a little tense, all thanks to one sister, who kept throwing glares at Hiryu, but said nothing to him.

After breakfast was over, the sisters went back up to their rooms to put on the last touches of make up or accessories for a new day at school.

Meanwhile, Ranma and Hiryu remained on the living room and resumed his chat with Hiryu, while they waited for the sisters.

"So, what do you think of your fiancée?" Ranma asked to his 'son'.

"Hn. She is upset." Hiryu stated, "A reasonable reaction after receiving the unexpected notice of the engagement."

"Well, yeah. But that wasn't what I was referring to." Ranma scratched the back of his head. "What I meant is that if you think she's pretty; or what do you think so far of her personality and stuff along those lines."

Hiryu remained quiet for a few seconds as he pondered his answer. "I'm not sure. I have never really thought about things like that before. There were always more important things to worry about in my Loop."

Ranma could imagine that. But this was not the time to talk about heavy stuff like that.

"So you are saying you never had a girlfriend before? Not even a crush?"

"Never." Hiryu answered instantly without a second thought. Hiryu wasn't really a social person,; though he had brothers-in-arms, he wasn't exactly friends with them.  
Sure, there were also female Striders in the organization, but they were very few among their male counterparts. Also, they were more concerned with training and missions to even think about relationships.

No, the only prolonged exposure that Hiryu could remember he had with the female kind was with his sister Mariya. And even then, after his quickly ascension to Special-A class meant that he and his sister saw each other less and less.

And even after leaving the organization behind, he would usually live his life either in isolation as a hermit in the mountains or as a wandering nomad.

Well, there were also the Three Sisters, but he always met them in battle in Kazakh City and 2000 years into the future when they are revived by Meio; those instances are really short periods of time. The only time it was different, was in that strange variation were he recruited them in order to bring that Meio that one time. But after that he never saw them again in that loop.

"In that case, I guess it's my duty as a father to give you some advice if you want to survive this engagement." Ranma said solemnly, trying to get 'in-character'. "There are three things you must always remember about women!"

" **One** : Women like men who listen to them; so paying attention to what they are saying and how they feel is crucial. And be prepared for when they asked if you have been paying attention to them and to repeat the last thing they said."  
" **Two** : every once in a while, try giving compliments; women like to hear people say good things about them. Try compliment things about their appearance like their clothes or accessories they are wearing. And if ask you about their body, remember to compliment things like their hair or eyes. Most women get offended if you compliment things like breasts size, hips and legs so be careful."  
" **Three** : Women like men who are skilled in many things, but not too many! They don't like it when they feel inferior or unskilled by comparison. In case of a competition; wait until she asks you to offer help, although sometimes they can be a little too proud to ask for it. Also, if you are also part of the competition, do not drop the match or let her win, but do try not to out-stage her."

"Now there are a lot more than that about women, but these are among the most important things you should take in consideration if you want to go through this engagement as smoothly as possible."

"Understood!" Hiryu replied with a nod, grateful for the advice.

' _Good. This is all what I can do for him now. Next, I'll try for him to try and talk more naturally and less formal_.' Then the sounds of steps coming from the hallway towards them, made Ramna and Hiryu turned towards the opened door.

The first one who came back down was almost unrecognizable by Ranma and Hiryu. If it weren't for the back hair, none of the two would've guessed she was Nang. For some unknown reason the girl was wearing a school uniform that was a few sizes too big for her, her hair looked unkempt and barely brushed, and she was wearing big round swirly glasses.

"I'll be going now." She announced and then turned to leave the room.

"Uh..Have a nice day at school…?" Ranma said still a little confused by the girl's sudden change of appearance.

Said girl stopped for a second and turned her head back to him. "Thanks. Have a nice day too, Uncle Ranma." And with that she walked away, completely ignoring Hiryu.  
"That was weird." Ranma couldn't help but to comment out-loud.

"Indeed." Hiryu agreed alongside with a nod.

The next one to come down was Ton, and thankfully she looked exactly the same. No sudden changes like her younger sister.

"Wait! Nang, wait for me!" Ton said as she entered the living room only to stop to realize that her sister was already gone. "We were supposed to go together!"

"Well, I guess you could walk to still with Hiryu!" Ranma suggested. "That way you can show him the way to school."

"What? Why me?"

"Because he is your fiancée of course!" Xi Wang chipped in as she suddenly entered the room. "Besides, Nang is already gone, and Pei takes forever to get ready and she's always tardy!" The Matriarch explained seriously. "Besides it is the perfect way for you to spend some time together."

"But I…" Ton tried to argue back, but she knew that in the end it would be for naught. So she resigned herself to the situation. "Very well." Then she turned to look at Hiryu on the floor. "What are you waiting for? Hurry up or I'll leave you behind!" And with that she left the living room.

"Roger!" Wasting not a single second, Hiryu stood up and followed after his fiancée.

After the two were gone, Xi Wang sighed. "I hope they start getting along soon!"

"Yeah, me too."

[x]

Hiryu and Ton were walking down the road in a silence that could only be described as tense. Ton walked at least three steps ahead of Hiryu to avoid looking at him. Meanwhile Hiryu just looked around taking on his surroundings and memorizing all sorts of landmarks for his mental map of the city, since he couldn't use Option-D, without freaking people up.

The silence lasted around ten minutes, before Ton finally decided to say something.

"Listen here. When we get to school I don't want you talking to me, or even say that you know me. You don't know me, understand?" Ton didn't wait for him to give and answer as she continued. "I'm warning you, school is already bad as it is, I don't need you causing me more troubles."

"Understood." Hiryu answered. Despite wanting to go through with the engagement, he wasn't really familiarized with the mechanics of how relationships worked. So all he could do for now was to follow Ranma's advice.

The first rule was to pay attention to what Ton said. And she asked him to act with unfamiliarity towards her during schooling hours. So he would do what she request of him.  
Then out of the corner of his eye, Hiryu saw something that made him launch himself towards Ton and spun her with his arms.

"HEY! What the hell do think you're…?" She shouted to complain only to be interrupted by the sound of water hitting the floor.

"Oh mighty sorry!" An old lady began apologizing, "I didn't saw you were walking by. I hope I didn't get you all wet."

"Do not concern yourself, ma'am!" Hiryu replied to the old lady as he walked towards her. "None of us got wet, so there is no need to apologize."

Ton took a look at a large puddle of dirty water, which was where she was standing before Hiryu spun her away.

"Oh my, what a kind young man to reassure and forgive an old lady such as myself. I thought there weren't any good boys left at this day and age." The old lady said with a smile and then she turned towards Ton, "You are a lucky girl to have such a courteous and handsome boyfriend!"

"Boyfriend?! No, you are wrong, he isn't my boyfriend!" The now embarrassed Ton corrected to the old lady.

"Is he not?"  
"Of course not!"  
"We are currently engaged." Hiryu informed.

"Oh really? My, my, and here I thought that the youth today were too afraid of compromise! It warms my fragile heart to hear there is still young people wanting to tied the knot. I wish you a happy future to you two and a healthy baby too."

"But…I…we…" Ton was at loss of what to say.

"Thank you kindly ma'am." Hiryu said. And proceeded to bow to the old lady. "Now if you excuse us we need to continue on our way. I was a pleasure meeting you."

"It was nice meeting you too. Now go and be young and leave this old woman to her things."

"Hn. Good bye and have a nice day."

And with that Hiryu walked towards Ton and continued their way.

"What was that all about?!" Ton asked him, still embarrassed by the insinuations of the Old Lady. "And why did you tell her we were engaged?!"

"I was being respectful towards my elders." Hiryu answered ignoring her tone. "Besides, you said I should pretend to not know you at school. Not outside of it."

"Don't be a smartass with me!" Ton said as she came to an abrupt stop causing Hiryu to stop as well. "I don't know what you are trying to pull? But listen here, I won't fall for any of it, you understand?" She then finished by looking Hiryu directly in the eyes to drive her point across, only for her to completely pause.

Those eyes. Those red piercing eyes. How come she had never noticed them before? They were so exotic, she was mesmerized by them. But in a very strange sort of way, she couldn't help but feel like she had seen them somewhere before; somewhere else a long time ago. Almost like she had seen them before in a ' _Dream'_.

Suddenly, a small beeping sound snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Wait, what was that?" She asked confused only to find out the sound was coming from a watch that Hiryu was wearing.

"It's my watch." Hiryu pointed it out with his finger, "My father gave it to me today as a gift for starting school today." He explained but Ton was more interested in the hour it was giving than the explanation.

"Shoot, if we don't hurry we are going to be late!" And with that she started running down the road with Hiryu following close behind, burying her previous thoughts about those red eyes in the deepest part of her mind.

As they ran away, Ranma stepped out of a corner and smiled.

"Huh, it played almost like in 'baseline' piece by piece." Well except the part with the old lady. It seemed that Hiryu had a lot more special awareness than Ranma did when this first played out. "That or he is far luckier not be splash with water in the most inopportune moments." Something that after all the Loops he had, he still had a problem with. But only if he wasn't paying attention. "Any way, I can't wait to see how Hiryu deals with Kuno." It ought to be interesting to watch. And with an incredible speed, Ranma 'flashed' away.

A few seconds later, a voice came shouting from the distance.

"Oh crap, oh crap! I'm late again!" Shouted the Eldest of the Winds as she too ran towards school.

* * *

Ranma reappeared once more, but this time he did so atop the roof of Furinkan, waiting to see what would happen. Down below he could see that the' hentai hoard' was already formed.

"Is it me or the hoard is twice as large in this Loop?" Well, it didn't matter. It would all result in the same. Ton would defeat them all like Akane would, and then Kuno would make his appearance.

It was all a matter of time.

Down below, two running teens came to a stop a few blocks away from school. Hiryu without saying anything, threw a questioning look at Ton who quickly explained.  
"Look, whatever happens when we get to school; do not interfere, no matter what! Do you understand?"

"Understood. I will not interfere." Hiryu answered as they resumed their walk. He still wasn't sure what was it that made Ton feel so anxious about going to school. But he knew that whatever it was, she could handle it on her own.

As they neared the school's entrance, Hiryu noticed a large group of students waiting for something. "Is this large group something normal at this school?"

"Just you wait and see." Ton said with a resigned tone. Then she started counting backwards, "Three…two…one…"

"Yahoo! I arrive just in time!" announced none other than Pei, the eldest of the Wind Sisters, as she came to a halt once she reached the entrance.

"Look is Pei-sama!" Shouted one of the students from within the hoard.

Then half of the students waiting in the hoard separated themselves from the other half, to try and surround the beautiful Pei with their adoration.

"Please, go out with me!"  
"No, me I'll do your homework for a month for a date!"  
"Please notice me, Pei-Sama!"

Meanwhile Pei just smiled as she walked towards the main building completely surrounded, not looking bothered at all. "Guys. I love it when you pay attention to me. But right now I have to go to my classroom, I can't be late again."

Still, the crowd kept walking besides here, showering her with adoration and kissing the floor she stepped in.

Seeing all of this from the rooftop, Ranma sweat dropped. "So that's the reason why the hoard is larger this loop. But never mind that; down below there was still a large crowd of eager students waiting for the other sister.

"Here we go again" Ton gave a sigh in resignation as she ran towards the hoard.

The ensuing fight was very short but very exciting to watch. Despite her lack of signature weapon, Ton still moved with the fluidity and grace Hiryu has come to expect from the leader of the Winds. But on the back of his mind, Hiryu wondered if this sort of things was a daily occurrence. If so, it would've explain Ton's anxiousness towards coming to school.

As the final member of the hoard finally fell to the ground unable to fight anymore, Hiryu took the opportunity to put into practice Ranma's second advice. "That was an excellent performance." Hiryu complimented. But his words were ignored as Ton turned around and caught with her hand a fast projectile that turned out to be a white rose.  
Suddenly the atmosphere of the yard turned heavy, and clouds began forming in the sky covering the sun. Then a figured that has previously been hiding behind a tree, made its appearance.

Ranma instantly noticed that this person wasn't Tatewaki Kuno, but someone completely different. He was a young man with long black hair tied up in a ponytail. And instead of wearing an uwagi and hakama, this new person was wearing a very stylized white gakuran.

"Is he another replacement from Hiryu's Loop?" Ranma wondered as he looked closely at Kuno's replacement. "One thing I got to admit, he is way more ambiguously effeminate looking than Haku in Naruto's Loops"

Then a sudden movement down below, caught the attention of the First Looper.

Hidden behind a large tree was none other than Nang, trying her best to stay hidden and at the same time trying to look on the 'confrontation.'

Extending his senses further than any other human could ever hope to achieve, Ranma tried to figure out what was it that Nang was doing. And soon enough he had his answer.

"Senpai is so cool!" the youngest of the Winds sighed enamored.

Apparently, the ice queen had a massive crush on this new guy. Ranma would've found this cute if it weren't for the erratic breathing the girl was having.

' _This turned from cute crush to creepy stalking._ ' Something he was oh so familiar with.

Anyways, Ranma left Nang to her own devices and turned his attention to this new guy's introduction.

 _"Cherry Blossom from the Gion Temple,_

 _You make everything around you glow._

 _The color of Buddha's garden loses charm,_

 _When compared with your beauty."_

The white wearing guy recited towards Ton, whom didn't look pleased with his appearance. Still, that didn't stop the young man's approach.

"Truly an uneducated lot. They lack proper manners. Then again, each one of them is desperate trying to enamor you by finally defeating you in combat. But I know that honor belongs solely to me!" He announced as he revealed a wooden sword that he had strapped on his back. "You'll have to defend yourself, lovely Ton."

Instinctively Ton took a step back away from him. "But Hien…"

"Come forth, Ton Pooh. Please accept my challenge." The one called Hien announced pointing his bokken towards her. But before Ton could even give him an answer. Hiryu stepped forward.

"Enough of this." Hiryu said as he position himself between Ton and Hien.

Hiryu was shocked to see Hien here. Never would he've thought his bitter rival would show up in this loop. In fact the moment when Hien made his appearance, he was stuck cold in place. But after hearing him talk, he realized that he wasn't the same Hien he knew. This was just an high schooler, not the traitor of their organization and double agent for Grandmaster Meio.

"What are you doing? Get out of here or you'll get hurt!" Ton warned him. Something Hiryu took with a grain of salt. He doubted this version of Hien could even compare with his original counterpart.

"You!" Hien pointed his sword at Hiryu, "Who are you? And why are you acting with familiarity towards the lovely Ton?" Hiryu was about to answer, when he remembered the agreement he made with Ton about acting like they didn't knew each other."Answer me!" Hien demanded slowly losing his temper. Another clear indication that this wasn't really the Hien Hyryu knew. The Hien he knew never lost his composure, not even in the face of death; a very distinct attribute for someone who reached the Strider Special-A class.

"Shouldn't you offer your name first before demanding others' ?" Hiryu asked as collected as ever.

"Hn. You are correct!" Hien agreed regaining his cool demeanor from earlier. "I shall introduce myself. So you better listen well, because I shall not repeat myself. I am the undisputed champion in the armed martial arts star from this school, and captain of the Kendo Club. Because of my unparalleled abilities and quick draw of the sword I am known by many as the White Thunder of Furinkan!" Hien then raised his sword as lighting stroked in the sky behind him.

"Kuno Hien! And I'm seventeen years old."

Hiryu noticed that this Hien was also a lot more talkative than regular Hien.

"Practitioner and heir to the Saotome Style of the Anything Goes Martial Art, my name is Saotome Hiryu . And I'm sixteen years old." Hiryu introduced himself with a small nod. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Hm. You seem to have some manners after all!" Hien said as rearranged the position of his hair bang with one hand. "Still, you haven't answered my question. Why are you acting with such familiarity towards the lovely Ton! What is your relation towards her?"

"Hn. I'm afraid to say that I do not know anything about Ton. We are complete strangers." Hiryu lied perfectly, trying to keep his promise from earlier. "But even I, a stranger, could see that she has no desire to accept your challenge! So I ask you to keep your distance and leave her in peace."

"I see…" Hien said without taking his eyes or sword away from Hiryu. "You want Ton to fall for you by acting like some sort of action hero, huh? Sorry to bring you down to reality but that's not going to happen. Because it is I who would have the lovely Ton fall in love with me. Now as punishment for your underhanded trick I challenge you to a duel!" Hien finished already I poised to attacked.

"I accept your challenge!" Hiryu answered. Much to the horror of Ton.

"What the heck do you think you are doing?! Hien will destroy you!" Heck, Ton herself had a lot of trouble fighting against the Kendo captain.

"Do not concern yourself with me, Miss Ton!" Hiryu answered still pretending he didn't know her. "I will not fall in battle, and if I do at least it would be for a noble cause. "

Ton looked at him as if he was crazy. But that sentiment quickly turned into anger. "I'm not some helpless girl that can't fight her own battle or a prize to be fought over to win!"

"I know." Hiryu responded not bothered at all by her tone. "I will fight you Hien, however I find myself at disadvantage without a weapon! It would not be honorable if you were to win by these circumstances." Hiryu appealed to the ego of the boy in front of him.

Sure, he could fight him with his bare hands, but he didn't want to risk killing the boy by a miscalculation of his part. Hiryu was known for chopping people in half like they were tissue paper with just one swing of his hand. At least with a weapon in hand he could better control his strength.

"I see! Well, chose a weapon and let us start our duel!" Hien pointed out to the many different weapons and blunt objects the hentai hoard had used to try and defeat Ton. Scanning with his eyes over the different objects for a few seconds, his gaze finally fell upon something that looked useful.

Kneeling down for a second, Hiryu picked up a small white wooden sword from the floor. Despite being just a training tool, it was dishonorable for it to remain in the ground. Hiryu decided to become this weapon's new master, and as sign of its new place, Hiryu gave it a name.

"Shirakiha." The white wooden blade.

"Hn. A white _kodachi_ … " Hien mumbled. "If I didn't know better I would say you're trying to be funny."

"I'm ready, Hien!" Hiryu announced as he got into position.

"Very well…Begin!" Hien shouted as he charged forward.

Upon the rooftops, Ranma could help but smile. "This is going to be good!"

* * *

"Students I would like to introduce you to a new transfer student, his name is Saotome Hiryu and until recently he had being on a trip to China. So I expect you to treat him well." The teacher for the 2-F classroom announced as Hiryu was in front of the classroom.

"Still this doesn't change the fact that you and Miss Pooh arrived late, so please step outside the classroom as punishment!" And so the two of them were standing next to each other carrying buckets filled with water.

"This is entirely your fault." Ton pointed out. "Because of you I was late for the first time in my life."

"I'm sorry." Hiryu apologized as he pondered something that had been nagging him on the back of this head. "Was everything about this morning a routine for you?"

Ton wasn't really in the mood, but she knew that Hiryu would find out sooner or later. "Some time ago Hien announced to the whole school that they only way I would go out with someone was if they defeated me in combat. Because of that every day I have a hoard of students trying to fight me."

Hiryu just blinked in confusion. Even someone like him, with the bare basic understanding of how romantic relationships worked, thought it was really weird.

"And for some reason I always win." Ton added with a doubtful tone.  
"You mean the fights with Hien?" Hiryu pointed out.  
"Yes. I've always known that he was a very talented fighter. But after seeing you fight with him…"  
"You are worried that he's been holding back against you?"  
"Hey, do not underestimate me!" Ton said feeling offended.  
"I do not doubt your skill as a fighter." Hiryu explained. "In fact, you also hold back against him."

"What do you mean?"

"I've seen you train at the dojo. You are very skilled with the Lín jiǎo dāo. But I doubt you could ever use it to fight Hien in the school grounds. So a fight with the two of you at your full capacity hasn't occurred yet." Ton thought about what Hiryu said and nodded in agreement.

Then a yell was heard from down the hallway.

"SAOTOME! I'LL NEVER ALLOW IT!" Hien appeared and tried to splash Hiryu with a bucket filled with water. Thankfully Hiryu's reflexes were sharp enough to help him avoid all the water and being transformed into a woman.

"Hien, what is your problem?!" Ton yelled. Usually Hien would act with a little more class and composure than this.

"I SHALL NEVER ACCEPT YOUR EGAGEMENT WITH TON!" Hien shouted much to Ton's horror. And because of all the commotion, everyone heard Hien's proclamation.  
Instantly, she was bombarded by shout of incredibility and all sorts of other questions.

"Wait! No! It's isn't…" Ton tried to cover the truth, but it was all futile. "Our parent's were the ones who decided it!" Her explanation fell on deaf ears as everyone else were jumping into absurd conclusions as to why she was suddenly engaged. Pregnancy being one of them.

Ton's previous school life was officially over. There was nothing else she could do. Except maybe kick whoever told Hien about her engagement in the ass.

'Who could have been?"

[ **Flashback** ]

Hien was sitting at his desk replaying his fight against Hiryu in his head.

The two of them exchanged a few blows, parried each others' attacks; it all felt so natural to him, like he had fought him many times before; as if they were rivals in a previous life or something. But then, after Hiryu jumped into the air and Hien was about to deliver a decisive blow, a panda came out of nowhere and tackled him out of the way as rain began to pour from the sky.

' _I feel cheated!_ ' That Hiryu had the luck of a devil. But in the end it didn't matter because they would resume their duel after classes were over. ' _You may be safe for now, Saotome Hiryu. But I'll be coming for you!_ '

As he was lost on his thoughts for a rematch. An inconspicuous letter came flying throw the window and fell on top of his desk.

" _Huh? When did this come here_?" Hien looked at the letter in surprise. ' _It must be another love letter_.' He concluded.

Hien, been the person that he was, was very accustomed to receiving love letters all the time. ' _Hn. Useless_.' Hien was a firm believer that love was meant to be expressed face to face, not by anonymous letters. If his rule of conduct didn't prohibit it, Hien would've tossed the letter away. ' _But I'm not so heartless. At least I shall read what she wrote before discarding it_.'

Hien read what he assumed was a love letter, but that was written on it weren't the words of a girl confessing her love to him. No, the truth was that the contents of the letter were much worse.

"WHAT ENGAGED!?"

[ **Flashback End** ]

* * *

Hours later back on the Winds House, Hiryu was retelling the events of his first day at school.

Ranma just nodded and asked questions every now and them for more details. Apparently, after he left, Hiryu's day played up exactly the same as it had done on Ranma's baseline. Hien chasing and attacking Hiryu throughout the hallway; the two of them jumping out of the window only to fall on the pool; Female Hiryu rescuing Hien from drowning, followed by the whole tree and kettle scene.

"So you had a very busy day after all!" Ranma commented with a smile. "And Ton helped you a lot to get through that rough patch and prevent your secret from been revealed."

"Yes. She was very helpful."

"Well, you should thank her for all her effort." Ranma suggested. "But do that tomorrow, I'm sure she had it rough too, so it is better to let her rest." If Ton was similar to Akane, she would make a comment that Hiryu would overhear and that could lead to trouble. Better try to avoid that.

"Understood."

"Is something that matters, Hiryu?"

"Yes. I was wondering how Hien discovered the secret about the engagement…"

"Mmm I honestly have no idea." Ranma said, but he had a sneaky suspicion of who could've done it.

[x]

That night Ton had trouble sleeping; all that she could think off were Hiryu's fight against Hien and how agile he was, and also those red eyes of his. Not only was the color exotic but the depth she could see when staring at them was magnetizing. As if those eyes had seen things no other person ever did. Those were eyes of a warrior, not some sixteen year old boy.

After hours of turning and changing positions, Ton finally fell in the spell of sleep. And her dream although she may not have remembered next morning; were about Her and her sisters, fighting alongside Hiryu as allies against a great evil. And during all their travesy a thougth kept resonating through her mind.

' _Hiryu is really strong_.'

[x]

Next day, Hiryu received a letter that was directed at him except is wasn't at 'him' but at 'her'.

"To the tree borne kettle girl…?" Hiryu read the title of the letter.

"Hien gave it to me to bring to you, or better said, to the female you." Pei said, "And by the looks of it, it appears to be a challenge to a duel."

"On Sunday to the tenth hour, meet me at the second field of Furinkan High School."

"Yep. Definitely a duel." Pei affirmed.

"Are you going to accept?" Ton asked with a very uncharacteristically concerned tone. She knew first hand how strong Hien was and when the two of them fought yesterday, it was a very even match.

"… I'm not sure."

This matter required deep meditation.

[x]

It was the eleventh hour of Sunday when Hiryu, in his female form returned home and sat at the dojo floor to meditate. Not long after that the three sisters along with Ranma came into the Dojo to question him about his 'duel' with Hien.

"So how did it go?" Ranma asked knowing full well what happened at that 'duel'.

"We didn't duel." Hiryu said much to the surprised of the sisters. "He asked me to come for another reason."

"And what reason was that?" Ton asked.

"He…he confessed his love towards my female form." Hiryu confessed while experimenting a feeling he hadn't felt in a long time: embarrassment.

"Oh, Man that is hilarious!" Pei laughed as she clutched her sides. "Looks like Ton has competition for your affection!"

"S-Shut up!" Ton elbowed her sister while red formed on her face. It wasn't like she liked Hiryu or anything. But the idea of losing her fiancée to a man would be a tremendous blow to her ego.

"Oh god, this is the funniest thing I've ever heard, don't you agree, Nang?" Pei kept on laughing as she turned to her little sister only to discover that she wasn't in the dojo anymore. "Huh? Where did she go?"

A second later, the entrance door to the Dojo opened to reveal Nang with her halberd in hand. "Prepare to die Hiryu!" She yelled as she brought down her weapon down from an overhead strike to where Hiryu was sitting, only to have him dodge at the last second. "Hien senpai is mine!"

"NANG! What are you doing? Stop!" But Ton plead fell on deaf ears as her sister readied another attack.

"I will not let anyone steal him! Especially a she-male like you!" this time she lounged forward with the intent of stabbing Hiryu with the ends of the double axe, which Hiryu evaded this time with a back flip.

As he fell on all fours, Hiryu went for his Kodachi, which he had strapped on the lower part of his back, and took defensive position.

"We have to do something!" Ton declared but a hand that fell on her shoulder stopped her. "Uncle Ranma…?"

"No. Let them fight!"

"But…!"

"If they don't let them solve this now, they will be on each others' throats forever!" Ranma explained. He had seen this type of scene play out so many times before, and stopping it would only cause more harm than good. Still his future daughter-in-law didn't look all that convinced. "Don't worry if it gets too dangerous I'll make sure to stop them!" He reassured her. Then he turned towards Pei, "Pei, please tell your mother to prepare some wood and tea, I think the Dojo would need some restoration after all of this is over."

"Don't need to tell me twice, Uncle Ranma!" Pei took the opportunity to get away from the fight as quick as possible. She always knew that her shy and distant little sister would one day snap and thank goodness it wasn't directly at her.

Back to the fight; Hiryu kept on evading each and every strike Nang directed at him, which cause her to become angrier and angrier."Why won't you stay still!?"  
Hiryu remained silent, he knew that this situation devolved beyond the point of peaceful discussion and whatever thing he had to say would only register as a taunt in the mind of the ferocious sister. "Fight back! Like the half man you are supposed to be!"

Hiryu didn't let her insults get to him. Besides he was already accustomed to be berated and yelled at by the three sisters every time he looped. No, to end this fight without anyone being hurt, he ought to remain calm. Counterattacking with Shirakiha was out of the question. And blocking was counter intuitive. No. if he wanted to end this fight, evading her attacks was the key to victory.

"That's it!" Nang yelled as Hiryu evaded her attack once again. "I'm finishing this!" Then Nang winded out her attack as some blue energy began to charge through her halberd; much to Hiryu's silent surprise.

' _She can use that technique in this world too?!_ "

"Take this!"She swung her Halberd liberating a strong gust that almost sent everyone inside the dojo flying away. And Hiryu, been on the receiving end of the attack, struggled the most to keep his footing. But she wasn't finished yet, Nang then swung her weapon again but this time the blue energy was liberated in the form of a crescent moon towards Hiryu.

"Die!"

Hiryu had seen that attack before! He knew the girl before him shouldn't be able to use that attack. Not even her regular self, whom he had fought countless times, should be able to do so. Why? Because it was the same attack the South Wind used against Meio's forces when they had teamed-up on that Strange Loop.

Nevertheless the attack was coming towards him and he knew what kind of power it packed. It tore clean Meio's red trooper units like they were wet paper; the same units that would usually take various hits from his cypher before he could cut them.

In other words, this attack was an equivalent to his charged cypher strike.

Now, there were a few things that the Strider could do; if he blocked, he risked losing his arm and or head; if he used his power to reflected the attack, Nang would end up dead on the floor. Neither of them was a good result in his opinion.

Using Options were out of the question they could intercept and negate the incoming attack, " **C"** would probably tear up a hole through the torso and " **B"** would maul her and slash her to pieces. " **A"** could stop it, but then he would have to explain to a confused Ton where he got super advanced technology that would be invented never in this Loop.  
Hiryu had no other option but to dodge, but to do so he would have to move faster than the eye could follow, something he wasn't looking forward to explain to everyone. But it was the only feasible solution.

' _Now!_ '

"Huh? What happened?!" Ton said confused. One second Hiryu was one side of the dojo and the next he was standing right behind Nang back to back. "When did he get there?"

Then the top half of Nang's Halberd fell onto the ground, sliced in two. Followed by Nang who also fell down when she realized she legs felt like they were made of jello. "Wha…?"

"You have been defeated." Hiryu pointed out. "Now stop with your unnecessary anger and let us discuss things like civilized people and put this matter behind us at once!" The steel on his voice and hardened stare made it impossible for Nang to argue back.

"Guess, I didn't have to intervene after all."Ranma said to Ton a smirk, who was still mesmerized and perxpled. "I'll go and get Xi Wang so we can discuss things like a family." He announced and left the room.

Leaving a stand still girl who had only one thought on her mind. ' _Hiryu is really strong!_ '

As Ranma walked down the hallway, a small tremble went through his arm.

' _This feeling…I haven't felt this in a long time_ ' Ranma thought as he looked at his trembling hand. ' _I'm excited_.' Hiryu's fight was what provoked this. ' _I want to fight him_.' Hiryu was really strong. Very Strong. ' _I can't wait!_ ' He would have to take him out to the mountains so they could train and fight without interruptions and limitation's on Hiryu' part.  
"Summer break…just wait until summer break…"

[x]

Later than evening Ton was sitting at a small desk next to her desk trying to concentrate on her homework but failing miserable. No matter what she tried, her thought kept coming back to the boy that was her fiancée.

"Hiryu…" Despite the rocky first impressions; Hiryu turned out to be not as bad as she initially thought. Not only was he strong, he always treated her and her sisters with respect and acted like a gentlemen.

In fact, earlier today after the whole incident with Nang was over, Hiryu talked mother out of the punishment she was going to give to Nang for her reprehensible behavior.  
After that he and Nang talk things through and make her see that he wasn't going to 'steal Hien away' and that her apparent obsession with the upper-classmate wasn't healthy.  
Ton always knew that her sister had a crush on Hien, in fact a lot of the girls in school did, but she would have never imagined it ran this deep.

Then Hiryu brought out a very good point. Why did she attacked him when Hien expressed interest towards his female form but never attack Ton when Hien clearly showed interest in her as well.

Nang revealed that she was never afraid of Ton reciprocating those feelings because of the way Hien tried to gain her affection. Pei then brought up the way Nang dressed at school, which hid her natural beauty. Why dress that way if she wanted Hien to notice her? Apparently Nang wanted Hien to look pass her outer appearance and fell in love with her; similar to the fable Donkeyskin Girl, a tale their mother told many years back when they were little.

Then in tears Nang revealed she was the one who told Hien about the engagement, thinking that if Ton was out of his reach she would've had the chance to make him notice her. This reveal made Ton feel angry towards her little sister, but she also felt sorry and pity towards her and her delusions.

After a whole two hours of conversation. Mother agreed to not harshly punish Nang, but she was still grounded and wasn't allowed to go outside the compound for a whole week. In fact, she wasn't going to be allowed to go to school either. She was going to be kept away from Hien and undergo physical and mental training under the watchful eye of Uncle Ranma. It was a harsh punishment, but it was better than been disowned from the family. But thanks to all of that, her little sister would be making a healthy recovery. And it was all thanks to Hiryu.

'Hiryu…' she sighed.

Sure he was really quiet and spoke always with formality. But when he speaks it was always something important or necessary. Also he was a very good listener and his quiet nature made him look mysterious and quite cool.

' _Not to mention those red eyes of his…!_ ' Ton wandered through her mind for a few minutes until she finally regained control of her sense.

"Snap out of it. You are acting as if you had a crush on the guy!" She said to herself. She needed to stop thinking about him and concentrate on her homework. "Let's see where do I left of." Then she looked down at her notebook only to realize she had been scribbling Hiryu's name over and over again. "Gah! Stupid Hiryu!" She proceeded to tear off the offending sheet of paper and threw it away into the paper basket.

This was getting ridiculous. She wasn't crushing on the guy. No way! It was just that she felt grateful and indebted towards him that's all. In fact, she was going to go directly to his room to talk to him just to prove she felt nothing towards Hiryu.

Ton was standing directly in front of the door to Hiryu's room and gently knocked on it.

"Come in." was the response she got and quickly she slide the door open to find Hiryu sitting at a low table on the floor, writing on his notebooks. "May I help you?" He asked as he turned to look at her.

"Uhm…Yes…I…" Ton was having trouble forming a coherent sentence. ' _Pull yourself together!_ ' she mentally kicked herself. "I just wanted to thank you. For sticking up with Nang and not hold a grudge against her."

"Hn. She wasn't in the best mental conditions. It would've been wrong of me to let her suffer through the disownment of her family name." Though if she fell back into that sort of mentality again, he wasn't going to pull his punches; that plasma cutter attack could've seriously hurt somebody. "I pray for her quick recovery."

Ton silently nodded in agreement.

Then the room fell under silence, and it looked like Hiryu wasn't going to break it anytime soon. So it was up to Ton to either bail out or do something.

"Are you doing your homework?" she asked only to kick herself again. ' _Well, duh! Why else would he be writing on his school notebooks?_ '

"Yes. It seems that I postponed it because of my focus on Hien's 'Duel'" And the events following that didn't help either.

"So, do you need any help?" Ton asked. She wondered if Hiryu had trouble with school, since according to Uncle Ranma they had been traveling all over Japan and Asia to perfect their Art, never staying anywhere too long.

Hiryu, by his part, didn't need any help, he had no trouble with it; but when he was about to decline her offer he remembered another advice his 'father' had given him. " _When a girl earnestly offers you help, accept it, despite not really needing it_." It was related towards his other advice about girls wanting to be useful and not feel outclassed.  
So Hiryu decided to follow Ranma's advice.

"Help would be appreciated." Was his reply.

"Oh! Sure, I'll be right back!" Ton said before leaving the room towards hers to bring back her own notebooks. ' _I'm just helping him with his homework, that's all! I mean, after what he did it's the least I could do to repay him_!' was Ton's inner thoughts trying to justify her actions and denied that fact that she might have started to like Hiryu.

Meanwhile, hidden behind a corner and having heard the whole exchange, Ranma couldn't help but smile. "Those two…they are up to a very good start."

* * *

After the events that were the first week after Hiryu came to Nerima, life in general turned up to be a more peaceful version than the normal baseline. First Hiryu wasn't constantly trying to prove to anybody that he was the best at everything martial arts related, which meant much of the potential challengers Ranma encountered in baseline were effectively avoided.

Though there were a few exceptions:

 **"Prepare to die, Hiryu! Because of you I've seen HELL!"**

Of course there was going to a Ryoga analogue and he was another replacement from Hiryu's Loop. The 'unmatched mercenary' Solo; except here we has known as the eternal bad luck boy Hibiki Solo.

Which explained a lot about the general outluck of his life.

Solo apparently hated Hiryu for besting him in combat many years ago; that prompted him to follow Hiryu and his father to Jusenkyo just to fall in one of the cursed springs. Which sping in particular no one was sure, but it clarified the reason why he wore impregnable body armor all the time.

Hiryu, not having any ounce of sympathy towards Solo, just kicked him out of town whenever he came back from revenge.

 **"You now are facing the beautiful White Rose from the St. Hebereke's School for Girls and captain of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, Kuno Kodachi!"**

Kodachi also made an appearance; the only different thing about her was that she had a different brother. That, and also her trademarked green leotard was white instead.  
But unlike with Ranma during baseline, Kodachi wasn't interested in Hiryu, since the first time they met, the young Strider confronted her in male form when she was attacking girls from other school's Rhythmic Gymnastics teams.

This resulted in Kodachi having and intense hatred towards Hiryu. Nonetheless the match between the two school's Gymnastics teams was held and because Kodachi had attacked the competition before the match, the Ton was asked to face Kodachi.

A match that Ton won fair and square despite Kodachi dirty tricks.

 **"Xiàw** **ǔ** **h** **ǎ** **o!"**

Shampoo and Cologne also made an appearance. This surprised Ranma since Hiryu and he avoided going to the Amazon Village and came directly to Japan.

Apparently Xi Wang was once part of the Amazon village, but left under her own accord after getting fed up by the village's strict rules and practices. Still, she didn't left in bad terms and still held some regards to her home, since her sister stayed back in the village. And that sister was Shampoo's mother, making the Chinese girl cousins to the Pooh sisters.

Cologne reason for visiting was that she wanted her great-granddaughter shampoo to see the world and not grow up to be so secluded; and maybe also fine a strong young man to bring back to the village.

Quickly enough, Ranma forbid Hiryu from fighting Shampoo. Just to avoid trouble.

" **I** **am the Grandmaster of the Anything Goes Martial Arts, the great and gallant Kuramoto**!"

The final change was the appearance of Happosai's replacement, Kuramoto; who didn't resembled the description Hiryu gave to Ranma. This was no towering wise old man; no he was a small sized thieving old man.

Although Kuramoto acted like Happosai; he was a little more restrained. He ogled women but never tried to grope them. He also was a thief, but instead of stealing underwear, he took small trickets that caught his fancy. Also he was obsessed with Japanese Dramas and Samurai flicks. So the fights were more about the ownership of the remote control instead of the perverted acts of the old man.

Even so, having him around and acting like that, had an unusual effect on Hiryu, whom Kuramoto was his father figure. Whenever the old man acted silly, Ranma could've sworn he saw Hiryu smirking under that red scarf of his. Heck, he even heard Hiryu chuckle once; something that seemed only to happen when the entire solar system lines up.  
As for the whole engagement between Hiryu and Ton, everything was going smoothly.

Since Hiryu was very quiet and formal, although Ranma was working in mellow him out a little bit, he never put his foot on his mouth like Ranma constantly did, so he never got into trouble for talking and making Ton angry; it also helped that Ton, despite being a little like Akane, wasn't a violent manic like baseline Akane with a very short fuse. Though it wasn't all perfect; Hiryu never show advances towards Ton, which meant the relationship was moving at snail's pace, because said girl was a little too prideful to scared to moves on her own, since Hiryu was somewhat difficult to read.

Still a very slow pace is better than an erratic one that went one step forward and two steps backwards. Ranma was tempted to try and do something, since it was getting on his nerves looking at the two of them walking in circles around each other, instead of been direct about it. And no the Irony didn't escaped him.

Then one day, an event he frankly almost forgotten about happened earlier than expected.

Ton prepared Sakuramochi. Cherry Blossom Rice Cakes.

The significance of the event was lost on anyone but him.

"Would you like to try one, Uncle Ranma?" Ton offered him one of the many pink mochi she prepared.

"N-No thank you, Ton! I'm really not hungry!" He quickly declined the offer. If he remembered correctly, these mochi were the special ones that could tell you that the person who eats them reciprocated or were very compatible in regards of love.

Ranma, knowing his luck with women in general, wasn't going to risk eating one and have cherry blossoms appear on his forehead. It would only lead to trouble if Ton found out she was love compatible with her 'Uncle'.

Ton's sisters also declined the offer. Not because they knew of the effects the mochi had, but for an entire different reason.

See, it was strange, but Ton had almost the same luck as Akane in the kitchen. Thought not as bad as the blue head's, Ton's food often was very bland or tasted weird and thankfully it never caused terrible stomachaches, or mutated into a sentient blob monstrosity.

Man, that one was a weird Loop!

Ton was ready to bail out on the whole thing when everyone refused to even try one of her pink rice cakes, but luckily Kuramoto arrived an took one of the Mochi for himself thinking they were made by someone else. And just as Ranma expected, a black cross appeared on his face.

"I..It worked!" Ton exclaimed surprised. She thought that the strange recipe she got from that strange vendor self titled 'The Black Marketer' and his claim of proving true love were just an elaborated ruse to sell her Sakuramochi ingredients.

As fast as she could, Ton took the whole plate of Mochi and went to find Hiryu to see what kind of mark he would get from it.

Hiryu was seating inside the Dojo meditating after a long series of Kata repeated 200 times when he heard the door to the Dojo open.

"Hiryu, I..I brought you something to eat!" Ton said feeling nervous. She then brought the plate down and sat beside him.

"Sakuramochi…?" Hiryu wondered as he looked at the pink treats. Wasn't it a little too late to eat the sugary treats, they weren't in March anymore when it is traditionally served.

"I know it isn't March…" She fidgeted when Hiryu just stared at the mochi, "and that boys your age don't usually eat sugar treats like this, but…I was wondering if you would have just one, please!"

Ton was acting weird in Hiryu's opinion, but he didn't think much about it. She was probably anxious to see his reaction to her sugar treats.

He knew that everyone else avoided eating her food because it tasted bad, but for Hiryu the taste was meaningless. He had been accustomed to just eat what he could get from the earth when he lived in the mountains; and when traveling from small town to small town on poor countries suffering because of the inner conflicts and civil wars of bigger countries around them, getting fresh ingredients wasn't a luxury he could or would afford.

So, no. He wasn't a very picky eater. Which meant he could eat whatever Ton prepared for him. Something she very happily did every opportunity she got.

' _Girls like it when you eat and enjoy the food they prepared. So unless it'll poison you, eat whatever a girl cooks for you._ ' Was another advice from Ranma.

Hiryu then pull down his red scarf put the pink sugary treat on his mouth and ate it. It wasn't that bad, in fact it was a little too sugary but that was about it. When he turned to Ton to say thanks for the treat, he stopped still when she noticed the way she was looking at him. Her eyes were focusing directly at his forehead for some reason. Was there a mark or bruise on it?

"Cherry…blossoms…" She mumbled.

As he was about to touch his forehead to feel if there something strange on it, he found himself being assaulted by Ton. Well, assaulted was the first thing he thought when said girl leaned towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck, and then she planted her lips unto his.

Time itself seemed to have slowly come to a stop, then the world around them disappear and only the two of them existed. The two of them just enjoying the taste, the sound and the smell that each provide for each other. And a fire that had lay dormant for some time now inside the both of them, ignited and burn brighter that the sun itself.

Neither of them knew how much time really passed when they finally ran out of air and had to separate, but one thing was for sure. Things would never be the same after all of this.

"Wha..I..uh…"For the first time in many years not only was Hiryu was rendered speechless, he couldn't even form coherent thoughts.

"Hiryu…?" The red faced girl asked anxiously. She was afraid of how he might react after kissing him so forwardly. For a second she berated herself for jumping at him without thinking what would've happened afterwards.

What if he hated it? What if he hated her after this? And many other questions like this began resonating in the young girl's head. The idea that she just screw up what she had with Hiryu for a stupid spur of the moment almost break her heart to pieces.

Meanwhile, Hiryu was still at loss. This was the first time something like this happened to him. Not even in 'baseline' he had ever been kissed by a girl. So there was no previous experience he could rely on, no clever plan, not even an advice from Ranma.

So he did what other confused 16 year old boy would do then confronted with a situation with he had no idea what to do. Rely on the old fight-or-flight response. And since he hasn't been know to have ever flight a fight, the only answer was to go forward.

Instinctly he wrapped his arms around Ton's back and held her closer to him.

"Hiryu…! Ton exclaimed surprised by his sudden movement only to be silenced by his lips pressing against hers once again.

Outside the dojo Ranma was 'chaperoning' the scene, just to make sure the two of them didn't went out of control with the whole hormones and all that. Also he was taking pictures and video for the memory album and for blackmail material later on.

' _Nabiki, you sure are a bad influence on people._ '

* * *

Months later, Ranma finally took Hiryu up to a valley in the mountains so they could do some training, something Ranma had been waiting with anticipation.  
In order for them not to be interrupted or bring unnecessary attention to them, Ranma had places several force fields, magic barriers and seals around the area. Ranma was convinced that they could release an atom bomb in there and nobody would notice.

Just perfect.

"Now Hiryu, I want you to come at me with EVERYTHING you got, you understand?" Ranma said as he was stretching his muscles readying for this fight. "I want you to come at me with the intent to kill." Otherwise it wouldn't be a complete evaluation of Hiryu's skills.

"But…" Hiryu wanted to protest but Ranma quickly shot him down.

"Man, don't worry about me! I can take anything you throw at me." He said reassuringly to the strider. "If you don't come at me full force you might end up hurt." He then warned with a very serous tone.

"Understood." Hiryu nodded as he opened his subspace pocket and equipped all of his gear. If Ranma wanted a real fight he would give him one. He was going to show to the Original Looper the Power of a Special A class Strider.

"Good! Now, BEGIN!"

Hiryu moved first, showing his impressive speed. In less than a second he was in front of Ranma throwing fast and precise punches towards him, all of them which Ranma dodged expertly.

Hiryu didn't let that bother him at all, and continue attacking not staying put in a single place for a single second. The barrage of attacks continued for a while until Ranma had enough of it and threw a counter against Hiryu which sent him staggering away.

"Stop!" Ranma said angrily. "I said to come at me at your fullest, this isn't your fullest!" He point his finger at the Strider. "I seen you move way faster than this, and those attacks you threw, I saw the hesitation on them from a mile away, you are holding back!"

"Sorry." Hiryu apologized embarrassed. "I just…"

"You are afraid of hurting me? Ha! What a joke!" Ranma pointed out annoyed. "When I said I can take anything you can throw at me I MEANT IT! So come at me seriously this time or go back home and stop wasting my time!" Ever since he saw him fight, Ranma had wanted to test Hiryu to his limits. He would be pissed if he didn't get that after waiting for him so long. "NOW COME AT ME!"

As soon as those words came from his mouth, Hiryu was already behind him ready to strike, but Ranma answered with a counter kick to send Hiryu flying off but his feet hit just air as Hiryu dissipated.

 _'Afterimage!'_ Ranma thought as he turned once more as Hiryu appeared once again from behind to attack. 'I'll block!' Ranma then brought his right arm up.

Drip.

"That was very good, Hiryu!" Ranma praised as he look down to the floor at his bloody right arm. "You can slice people without the need of your sword."  
"Do you need assistance?" Hiryu looked at Ranma worriedly.

"No, no I got this." The one armed Ranma said as he concentrated on his injury. "AAAAAAHHHH!"he yelled as a new arm grew. "Instant regeneration, how long had it been since a lost an extremity in battle?" He jokingly wondered out loud. "Oh by the way! You missed the chance to say: 'Do you need a Hand?' when my arm fell off, you need to be faster on the uptake!"

"Shall we continue?" Hiryu asked him, looking at him with surprise. That regeneration trick must have blown his mind.

"Sure! And don't worry about me losing anymore body parts, because I'm not going to let you!"

[x]

It had been several hours since they started fighting and by the looks of it, Hiryu wasn't even winded, much to Ranma's delight. This whole battle had been nothing short of fun and exhilarating! No matter what Ranma threw at him, the Strider would always answer back, never backing down, never complaining, never scared; not even when he would change tactics, fighting styles or power sets.

' _Let's see how he deals with a few ninjutsu borrowed from Naruto!_ '

" _Kagebunshin no jutsu_!" He called out as ten dozen shadow clones appeared and rushed towards the Strider.

Hiryu seeing as the clones had shadow and weight for them to leave imprints on the floor, knew that these weren't illusions and counter with his Options B and C. Liberating themselves from a special compartment within his Climbing Sickle, two small orbs transformed themselves into a Panther and an Eagle respectively.

The Panther, despite its bulky appearance, moved at incredible speed and slashed clones out of existence while the eagle flew straight through them with an even greater speed. And Hiryu wasn't far behind them cutting down the clones that evaded his two options.

' _Great coordination between them_.' They attacked in complete harmony with one and other with great and deadly efficiency. ' _They are incredible in land, but let's see how they take to the skies._ ' With great speed, Ranma now found himself standing over 200 feet in the air. "Hey Hiryu! Let's see if you can get over here!" Ranma teased waiting to see what strategy the Strider would use next.

Hiryu looked up into the sky and didn't think twice before calling his robot eagle over him. The Strider jumped and using his sickle, he hooked himself to the bird which flew up to where Ranma was at top speed.

"Interesting."

Hiryu tried to strike Ranma out of the sky with his cypher but Ranma quickly evaded. The eagle tried to maneuver and turn back for a second attack, but it proved to be not fast enough to come close at him while carrying Hiryu at the same time.

Ranma shot a small ki attack towards the Option, making it turn back into sphere form when it connected. This caused Hiryu to fall down from the sky. Ranma just waited to see what the Strider would do next, now that he was free falling down to the ground.

Without losing his calm, Hiryu extended his left arm and pointed it towards Ranma; a position that resulted familiar to the flying man.

"Does he have a grappling hook or something?" That pose was similar to what Batman or Link when aiming their grappling hooks. ' _Let's see him try!_ '

Then in a loud ' _splashing_ ' sound Hiryu 'teleported' behind the flying Ranma. Ranma tried to move but found out he couldn't. In fact he had literally been frozen solid and enchased in Ice.

Without any second to process what just happened, Hiryu stabbed him with his sickle and drove the enchased Ranma head first into the ground with an Izuna Drop. And as his frozen head hit the ground the Ice broke away into a million pieces.

"Now that one I wasn't expecting!" Ranma commented as he got up from the crater his fall had caused. But that was what made this fight so much fun, the Strider always upped the ante and kept on surprising him.

"Come! This battle is nowhere near finished!"

[x]

The fight continued well into the night, where the tactics changed radically. Instead of direct confrontation, it became a stealth battle; trying to take each other out without fighting directly. What followed were hours and hours of setting trip wires, bombs, kunai, smoke pellets, flash and stun grenades, and several attempts at silent assassination techniques.

Even then, the fight continued as the sun rose again up into the sky signaling the beginning of a new day. And the two of them resumed to the more direct approach of fighting.

But all fun times must come to an end, and Ranma decided to test Hiryu speed to the ultimate limit.

"Hiryu! I want you to parry all these!" Ranma yelled as he appeared before Hiryu unleashed an evolved version of a signature 'technique' of his. ' _Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken_ ' aka ""Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire" was more of a special training method more than a technique, but that didn't stopped Ranma from calling it Special technique.

Hiryu blocked and parried every strike Ranma threw his way. But that was expected since he used the regular version on him. ' _Now let's turn this up to eleven!_ 'The strikes came faster and faster every time and Hiryu kept on parrying and parrying.

The speed at which Ranma threw his punches soon exceeded the sound barrier and the speed of sound and that caused a sonic boom every time a punch was thrown.  
' _We are moving at supersonic speed. Over 1.2 Mach speed._ ' Ranma subconscious pointed out, while the conscious part was thinking that they both could move even faster.  
' _Faster! Faster!_ ' Then the speed turned up once again reaching ridiculous speeds for a normal human body to be able to sustain.

 _'Mach… two…Mach… Three…Mach… Four….Mach…...FIVE….!'_ They both reached Hypersonic Speed. A certain blue hedgehog would certainly approve.

Then before Ranma's eyes something unexpected happened. There were more than one Hiryu blocking his strikes. He was moving so fast that the afterimages looked and felt like solid clones.

Hiryu was moving so fast that he was in blocking in four different places at the same time.

' _So this is Hiryu's true speed!_ ' Ranma thought with a smirk on his face. He was happy to have pushed Hiryu this far; he would have never thought the young man was this strong.  
' _Now how are we going to end this?_ ' Ranma wondered for a second; until he decided to let Hiryu 'finish him' off with his best attack. After sending a mental command to the young strider, he began slowing his strikes to let Hiryu easily counter attack.

' _Let's end this!_ ' Was Hiryu's mental reply before launching Ranma into the air and then using this speed he with slashed him with rapid dashing strikes, it was as if he was been attacked by four different Striders all at the same time. But that wasn't the end.

The finisher was when all four Hiryu's converged and each of them had their respective cypher up to Ranma's neck trapping his neck inside the four crossing sharp edges.  
'Wait, this isn't an illusion of speed! These afterimages are really solid!'  
Then everything exploded.

[x]

"Good thing I replaced myself with a clone using the kawarimi no jutsu." Ranma sighed as he touched his neck, having a small ghost pain when the memories of his head been decapitated transferred to him.

Then Ranma turned around to see Hiryu unconscious on the floor. Kneeling before him, Ranma ran a quick check-up on Hiryu's body using medical chakra. ' _He's just exhausted'_ was Ranma's diagnosis.

' _And here I thought that after moving at Mach 5 speed for several minutes his body mst have been in worse conditions_.' Maybe some broken bones or ripped muscle tissue, but Hiryu's body was just fine; confirming Ranma's theory that Hiryu's physiology was indeed different and more resistant than those of humans from this loop.

But also, there was something far more interesting than Hiryu's different genetics. No. What caught Ranma's attention was Hiryu's inherent energy.

A power that he had dubbed Plasma Energy.

The curious thing about this Plasma Energy was how similar and yet how different it was from other powers he had seen over the eons. Especially, Ki, Chakra, Reiryoku and even Magic.

With all of those, an individual is able to gain enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and can increase the power of their attacks to inflict greater damage to opponents. These were shared traits between all of them. In fact, when someone like Ranma or others from the O7, who trained and used all of these powers, eventually they all become interchangeable and had next to no difficulty changing between one another.

Other less experience users of these powers could achieve similar results by using their preferred style of power and emulate the effects of others. For example using chakra to power a kamehameha, a ki exclusive technique. In fact most loopers fit this category, especially the more magic oriented ones.

The properties and mechanics of this Plasma Energy were interesting to say the least. But in order to understand it, a comparison was needed. Particularly if Ranma wanted to share his findings with other loopers.

 **Ki** , is a tangible energy inside every living being, with its major focus being in the center of the body. By drawing it out, an individual is able to manipulate it and use it outside the body. Ki is mostly conformed by physical power, but mental and spiritual power played a part as well. Mental discipline was needed to control the inner ki in order to liberate it outside the body and give it form, and spiritual gave it different properties. For example, Ryoga's Shishi Hōkōdan which was powered by negative emotions; or Goku's spirit bomb which only hurts those who were evil because it was created by positive emotions. But because Ki is mostly physical, its limitations were often physical. An individual's ki 'reserve' or 'pool' is only limited by the physical strength and body said individual, and the usage of Ki would often put strain in the body and drain physical stamina.

 **Reiryoku** , the power used by Shinigami, Hollows,Quincy, etc. worked exactly the same as Ki, except that instead of being conformed mostly by physical power, it was spiritual power instead. And because Spiritual power is closely associated with Mental power, Reiryoku could be molded into different properties, more so than Ki, in the form of Kido spells. Reiryoku usages, puts more strain on the spirit than it does so to the body. But because most practitioners fight while in 'Spirit Forms' the effects looks more like Ki expenditure and are reflected on the 'body'.

 **Chakra** , used by Ninja in Naruto's world, was a also similar to Reiryoko and Ki. Chakra worked by molding the Physical Energy of the body with the Mental Energy of the mind and combining them and balancing them in order to use their special techniques. Taijutsu, use almost only Physical Energy, while Genjutsu mostly used Mental/Spiritual. Ninjutsu was a middle ground. Because of different combinations one could combine their Physical with their mental/spiritual; one could mold chakra into an incredible variety of shapes and nature. Explaining all the types of elemental attacks ninja used in their battles. But because of its combining nature of Physical and Mental/Spiritual, using Chakra strained not only the body but also the mind and soul. That's why one someone exhaust their chakra, there is a high probability of dying.

Now **Magic** was a lot more difficult to explain. Specially because of its esoteric nature and infinite varieties of form, natures and shapes they could take. Though one could make the argument that all the previous mentioned forms of energy could be considered to fall under the term of 'magic' because of the various forms and properties it could have, but that was a discussion for another time.

Magic, in the majority of the cases, is more Mental/Spiritual than Physical. And the manifestation of Magic was mostly external than internal. Magic essentially takes 'Fundamental Essence' of reality and bend or alter it to the user's will. Most magic is channelized by taking this external energy from the world (although it may also come from other sources, like higher allegiance), transfer that energy through the body of the user (or an extension of them like: books, wands, staffs, jewels, horns, etc) and liberate the intended result back out. Although there are people who are able to generate and or store 'magic' from inside their bodies, in which case the magic take form similar to Ki and Reiryoku.

Because the term Magic covers a extensive variety of factors, its limitations and effects of usage also varied in extensively. If Magic was External, the user wasn't limited by a finite 'pool' or 'reserve' but by their mental resistance and capabilities. But if Magic was internalized, it followed the same rules as Ki. As for effects of usage, they would be Physical, Mental, Spiritual strain or a combination of the three.

Now, how does all of this factor when compared with Hiryu's Plasma Energy?

Well for starters, Ranma noticed that Hiryu had a finite 'reserve' of this Plasma Energy or P.E. for short. Something that was very similar to Ki. But the peculiar thing about it was the effect of expenditure.

When Hiryu uses P.E in combat, depending of the attack itself, a part of that energy would be spent. But unlike Ki or Reiryoku, that energy would return to him or maybe regenerate and fill back up his 'reserve'. Not even exhausting all of his P.E at once slowed that 'refill' and it will always fill all the way. Something that would take a Ki user hours to accomplish. Speaking of which, the effect of usage where also different than to a Ki user; Using P.E didn't exhausted the body nor Hiryu's stamina, so that meant the effect must be on Hiryu's spirit or mind. Making it similar to Reiryoku or inner generated/stored magic.

Still, Plasma Energy was different from those two.

Unlike Reiryoku, P.E didn't emitted Reiatsu, or Spiritual Pressure. There were traces of it, but it felt as something a normal human would have, something that Hiryu wasn't. Also, P.E lacked the versatility of Reiryoku or magic, because it could only be used offensively. Both Magic and Reiryoku could be used for defense as well as offense, not to mention both are capable of being used to heal and restore wounds; something that the mostly offensive P.E couldn't. Or could it?

Something that Ranma noticed during the fight, especially when he used a swarm of clones to overwhelm Hiryu when his options were unusable for that moment. When Hiryu defeated Ranma's clones, some of the energy liberated when they vanished, transferred itself into Hiryu restoring not his Plasma Energy, but his general stamina. Also some of the bruises and small cuts he had on his body quickly disappeared or healed.

It seemed that in order to compensate for its natural lack of healing abilities, when liberated Plasma Energy comes into contact with a source of similar energy like the chakra contained inside the clone bodies, it transfers some of that Energy towards its user to heal him.

That meant that as long as Hiryu keeps on fighting, he would not run out of stamina and his body would heal.

Still, this didn't mean that Hiryu was invincible, No. In fact the healing properties were miniscule and almost insignificance. The only reason Ranma even noticed said effect was because Hiryu destroyed and dissipated a large amount of clones in a very short amount of time. Besides, the wounds they healed were very small and not very deep. So Hiryu it is still very vulnerable to proper physical damage.

Another peculiar aspect of Plasma Energy is its ability to be channeled or transferred through complex and technologically advanced machines and devices, to not only make them work but also improve them. Those Options and Hidden Tech of Hiryu were proof of that. Heck Ranma had seen Hiryu channel Plasma Energy into a busted cellphone and made it work again, only while Hiryu channeled P.E on it; similarly to Magitek.

Speaking of improving, Hiryu's P.E could also give certain 'nature' to his sword and kunai when channeled through it, changing their properties and attack capabilities.  
But the most interesting of all was the 'Reflect' Cypher. With it, Hiryu could deflect and or return all sorts of projective attacks. And Ranma tried them all.

The found out that Hiryu could deflect and cut all sorts of Ki and Reiryoku based attacks, alongside with some jutsu and magic spells too. The only thing that could prevent Hiryu from reflecting a projectile was if the attack was infused with a type of nature. For example, Hiryu could turn back a 'pure' magic spell like _Expelliarmus_ , but if the spell was a 'fire' infused fireball spell, Hiryu couldn't deflect it. The same was for elemental jutsu like fire, wind, water and lighting.

Some might claim that with this sort of evidence Plasma Energy fell under the sub category of Magic. But the same could be claimed of the others alongside Elemental Bending and Alchemy.

No. This Plasma Energy was its own thing; different enough from the rest but also familiar enough to be part of them.

In the end, whatever it was, it made Hiryu a formidable opponent and full of potential. Potential Ranma wanted to explore, to see Hiryu grow, and take this new type of power to the maximum limit and see what could be accomplished by it.

' _A shame this loop only lasts a few years_.' Ranma though frustrated. He wanted to see Hiryu's growth first hand and mold him to be the best he could. ' _I guess that's what parents feel towards their kids..._ ' Ranma thought almost melancholic.

Over the eons, Ranma had make many Looper friends, some of them that were family to him like the rest of the original seven; he also had many apprentices; like Sunset Shimmer, who needed guidance at the time where things felt the most confusing; he had being father of many more thanks to the variations of the Loops, but most of them treated the relationship as a tongue-in-cheek joke and used the occasion to play pranks, do fun stuff or take the opportunity to learn about martial arts from the best there was.

But with Hiryu, it felt different. He was only one that took their father-son relation to heart; and one of the few that earnestly learn from him and his teachings and advice, not for martial arts or to fix a problem in their lives, but for just living life. And he took every advice to heart. Heck, he even taught him how to treat and talk to girls. The only thing that was missing was to teach him how to shave.

For all intents and purposes, Hiryu was his son.

Ranma then snapped out of his thoughts and look back at the unconscious form of his son. "I better get you back to our camp where you can rest." He said as he picked Hiryu up. "We can worry about restoring the valley back to the way it was later." Around them, the battle had really taking its toll on the place. It would require hours of earthbending and Mokuton Jutsu to restore it back to the way it was. "For now, just worry about resting and getting better! Then we can fight again!"

As if the unconscious boy had heard him, a tired moan escaped from his mouth.

' _Yep. Definetly my son!_ '

* * *

"I can't believe you went through with it." Ranma said to Hiryu as he looked up to the night sky and light up a cigarette. He never really liked them all that much, but tonight it just felt right. "You really didn't have to do it."

Ranma was refereeing to the fact that Hiryu just tied the knot earlier today, the last day of the Loop. A month ago, when Ranma told him that the Loop was about to end. Hiryu went out of his way and proposed to Ton to have a wedding. The both of them had a long discussion about why Ranma thought this wedding was a bad idea to begin with. But Hiryu convinced Ranma that he was prepared. He had come to like Ton a lot, and even if she never remembered any of it and things go back to the way they were back in his home loop, at least he would be able to remember, this peaceful and fun-loving times.

"I had to; if I didn't marry her before the Loop ended, then I wouldn't have fulfilled the family promise to unite our schools and our honor would've been tarnished."

"Really? Was it just that or you just wanted to consummate your marriage?" Ranma teased only to receive an impassive look as response. But Ranma could tell his son was trying to hide his embarrassment. "Yeah I thought so!" Ranma ignored his face and continue with the teasing. "So what are you doing here instead of being with your new wife?"

"Because you said you wanted to talk to me, before the Loop ended." Hiryu pointed out.

"Yes, well when I said that I didn't expect you to marry Ton on the last day of the Loop." Ranma said taking another puff from his cigarette. "But since you are here, I'll cut the chase and go straight to business, and then you can go back to your honeymoon!" Ranma then took one last puff before dropping it to the floor and stepped on it. "First I have a request for you." Ranma began as he took out a scroll from his pocket. "When the Loops ends and you found yourself in the presence of any of the loopers I have told you about, I want you to deliver this message to them." Ranma then put the scroll on Hiryu's hand. "I'll be grateful if you do so."

"Understood!" Hiryu nodded accepting this mission. Then he quickly deposited the scroll inside his subspace pocket. "Any other details or side missions that I must be aware of?"

"Not exactly a mission detail but…" Ranma trailed off, as he passed him another scroll. "This one is for you, but only open it after the loop ends; Also…"

"Yes…?"

"…Hiryu, these past years had been quite nice and I wanted to say that I have come to see you as a son of mine, not because this Loop memories said so but because of your strength and commitment. So I wanted to say how proud I am of you, especially know that you tied the knot."

Hiryu was left speechless. But he quickly recovered from the surprise. "It's been an honor and it humbles me that you see me as your son. In fact, I also have come to respect you and honor you as a father."

"Congratulations, son." Ranma said. "I couldn't be prouder if I wanted to."

"Thank you, Father."

And with a manly father-and-son hug, the loop came to an end.


	5. The Striders Family

4.1

Hiryu 'awoke' again; this time sitting on a sofa inside what looked like a living room with two children looking at him questioningly.

"I'll take it that you just 'Awoke', man!" the boy said. "Now according to my sister's loop memories and mine, you are our father but since you aren't Homer that means you are a Looper replacing him."

"Who…?" Hiryu asked a little dazed; he was still processing his Loop memories.

"Leave him be, Bart." Said the girl next to the one called Bart. "Can't you see he's still going through his memories? Just give him a minute."

"Bummer." Bart said. He really didn't like to wait for others.

After a few more seconds Hiryu finally went throughout all of his memories. "I see now."

"Finally! Now tell us who you really are!" Bart demanded somewhat rudely but Hiryu paid no mind. He was replacing the boy's father after all.

"I'm Hiryu and I'm from…" He stopped for just a second wondering just how to call his Loop. "…a Loop that starts at the year 2048. 48 years after the arrival of Meio, self proclaimed god and dictator of my world."

"Well, that sounds like a crapsack world if you ask me." Bart commented before he was elbowed by his sister. "Ow!...Lisa!"

"Don't be rude, Bart!" Lisa scolded her brother. "I apologize for my brother's rude behavior, Mister." Then she gave him a small smile. "By the way, my name is Lisa and my brother is Bart. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too!" Hiryu greeted back.

After that, the three of them began discussing their own In-Loop memories with each other.

Hiryu was a half American half Japanese man, after his father Kuramoto married an American woman. Hiryu grew up and married with his high school sweetheart, a half Chinese half French Ton, and the two of them currently had three children; Bart, Lisa and Maggie.

According to his memories, Hiryu and Ton chose American names for the children wanting them to be more accepted by the community at large, knowing well how difficult it could be to grow up with a foreign sounding name.

"That's all well and good, but how come our last name is still Simpson?" Bart wondered out-loud.

"Well…"Hiryu dragged out as he scratched the back of his neck, a habit he had picked up from Ranma's Loop. "It's because your great grandfather got the last name by exchanging it for a goat." That had to be one of the weirdest things that had ever come out of his mouth, and he had the feeling that it wouldn't be the weirdest ever. And apparently it wasn't all that weird for the two kids because they exchanged knowing looks to each other.

"Though there is something that bothers me…" Hiryu began, "I'm supposed to work at the nuclear plant but I have no in-loop technical knowledge about been a nuclear engineer or been a nuclear safety inspector."

"Don't worry!" Lisa reassured, "That is a normal thing for our father!" Somehow that worried him even more. He had seen what nuclear power could do and what dangers it brought if they were left unchecked. He couldn't risk everyone's lives like this.

"I guess, I need to study Nuclear Physics and Engineering." Hiryu decided.

"If you want, I can teach you all you need to know about it!" Lisa offered him with a smile. "I'm kind of the smart one of the family."

"If you two eggheads want to spend time studying, kindly leave me out of it!" Bart groaned out as he began to walk away. "I, on the other hand, I'm off to show my incredible acrobatic skills!" He then did a double back flip and landed gracefully. "And Martial arts skills." He followed it up with a flying roundhouse kick. "And since I'm ¼ Chinese and ¼ Japanese nobody would really question it!" And with a devilish grin he ran outside the house.

"Oh my gosh! That's true" Lisa shouted "If I do well in school I'll be reinforcing Asian stereotypes! But I can't do badly at school either! What should I do?"

"Try to be above average, but not enough to be the best in the class?" Hiryu offered to his agitated 'daughter'.

"That won't do either! Even if I try to be average I will still the smartest kid in school!" Really, her classmates weren't very bright and they were the worst school of the nation based on grades alone.

Hiryu was at lost; he never had to deal with a situation like this before, and the term 'Asian stereotypes' meant nothing to him besides vague in-loop knowledge. Still, he offered his advice once more. "You shouldn't let what others might think stop you from being what you want to do and what you want to be. In the end what makes you happy is what matters."

Lisa visually calmed down and took a deep breath. "You know, you took this whole father role very well. Do you have children, perhaps?"

Hiryu shook his head negatively. "This is my first time as a 'Father'." Still, that didn't meant he hadn't any experience dealing with kids before. He remembered his many travels through the Asian country side, were he would help lost or runaway kids return home safely.

"Well, it looks like you are going to do a fine job!" Lisa smiled. "Oh! Now that I'm 2/4 Asian, I can be a Buddhist earlier than normal!"

"Do you practice Buddhism?" Hiryu asked curiously.

"Yes, despite knowing that there are thousands of deities and they are trying to help with Yggdrasil, I still find peace under the teachings of Buddha." Lisa explained a little shyly. "I hope you don't find that weird."

Hiryu didn't know why, but he felt compelled to share with Lisa, "The Admin of my Loop is Guan-Yu, and he is a Buddhist, and because of him I too seek solace in mediation. Maybe we can meditate and seek spiritual enlightenment together."

Lisa looked at him curiously for a second before giving him the biggest smile yet. "I would really like that…dad."

* * *

Hiryu Simpson, father of three and safety nuclear inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, walked towards his daughter's room. As he arrived at the door, he gently knocked it respecting Lisa's privacy but he asserted his authority as a father figure opening the door and coming in.

Inside, Lisa was playing a jazz tune with her saxophone but she paused when Hiryu entered her room.

"Hello, dad!" It had taken some time but both Lisa and Hiryu finally grew accustomed to refer each other as Father and Daughter. Lisa still loved Homer as her dad and nobody could ever tae his place, but it was nice to have someone as Hiryu as father since they could relate to each other very well."Does my music bother you?"

"No, in fact I like it."Hiryu said. He had never heard something like it before."Sorry to interrupt but I have a question and I hope you could answer it."

"What is it?" Lisa looked at him curiously while putting her saxophone aside.

"It's been a few months now, I've noticed that none of you, Bart and Maggie included, have grown an inch. "Hiryu pointed out causing Lisa to sigh.

"Don't worry it is something that happens in our Loop." Lisa reassured him. "For some strange reason time passes but no one in Springfield ever ages. In fact no one ever notices except those who are looping."

In fact, she had been born 1984 when the Olympic Games were happening. And she had live up to the year 2014 and she was still 8 years old and a second grader and she didn't even noticed until she had started to Loop. That's why she had gained the title of 'The Eternal 2nd Grader'

"You kind of accept it after a while, but I can see how it would feel weird for some not been able to age."

"Not really." Hiryu replied. "In my Loop, after I reach 20, I stop aging thanks to my powers and the advance medical tech from the future, and I stay like that for 2000 years."

"2000 years?!" Lisa repeated shocked. "You mean your Loop last that long!" And she though 25 years was a long loop. She couldn't imagine what if would feel like to live for 2000 years at a time.

"Yes. But that is a story for some other day." Hiryu then changed the subject to another he wanted to discuss. "Also, I wanted to ask you about your brother, Bart."

"What about him?"

"I've been receiving a lot of letters from the principal about Bart's behavior." Hiryu said a little bit worried.

"Don't worry, that is normal of him. He always causes trouble wherever he goes." Lisa informed him looking a little sad. "I think he does all of those things because he is the one who suffers more with the loops."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Bart is the anchor so he had to Loop all alone who knows how many times, before the rest of our family started doing so." Lisa then took a big breath and continued. "But even then he still has to go through a lot of lonely loops. Not to mention the fact that he lives permanently trapped in a state of puberty, not being able to grow." The hormones alone could drive anyone mad crazy. "So acting rebellious and getting into trouble are the ways he copes with it all."

"I see…" Hiryu said understanding the situation but not been able to relate at all. His childhood and teenage years were mostly foggy and training related. But that didn't meant that he couldn't help. "He is restless and needs to let out some steam…I guess we could arrange a father and son 'camping' trip, so we could work so of that tension out."

"You know that is a great idea!" Lisa agreed with a smile. "And with summer break coming on, you could take more than just a day or two."

Hiryu nodded and then asked. "Would you like to come as well? I don't want you to feel left out."

" Thanks Dad. Besides, someone has to be there for damage control." Lisa had an idea what this 'camping' trip would entail; martial arts, training, explosions, etc. It was a thing men always did. "But what about Mom?"

"She could use a few days away from house work and dealing with Bart's messes." Hiryu pointed out.

Speaking of which, Ton's voice came from the first floor. "Dear, my sisters just called, they are coming to visit and they will stay for dinner, so you better clean up!"

Hiryu didn't know why, but whenever Ton mentioned her sisters, he always let out an annoyed grunt. "D'oh!"

* * *

Summer break came and Hiryu kept his promise of taking both Bart and Lisa camping a few days. Well, that was the basic concept of it. What would be really happening was that Hiryu would help Bart let out some steam through 'training' and by training it meant fight each other until one couldn't do so more.

"Ok, I have placed some magic runes around the area so we will not be disturbed." Lisa informed them. During her various fused loops Lisa had picked upon using magic of all kinds and forms, since she had always been a fan of Angelica Button's book series, an obvious analogue for Harry Potter Loops, which she had visited before as a replacement for Hermione. "Still, I must remind you to not burn down the trees or destroy the mountains around us, ok?"

"Whatever you say, Lis." Bart waved off cracking his neck. "So, man? Are you ready to do this, or what?" Bart then changed into a fighting stance. "I'll go easy on you!"

"Hn. If you won't hold back, I'll treat you with the same respect." Hiryu replied going into his own stance.

"Hey! Remember what I just said!" Lisa shouted but it seemed neither of them paid her attention. "Hm…men."

Bart was the one who made the first move and launched himself towards Hiryu with a flying kick. Something that Hiryu easily blocked with no trouble. But Bart wasn't finished, he used the momentum of his kick to jump over Hiryu and landed behind him and swept his feet with another kick. Hiryu having predicted Bart's plan, let himself be flip upside down and landed on a handstand.

"Fancy move you have there, dude." Bart commented, "But this is only the beginning!" Bart then cross both index and middle finger with his two hands and shout. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Making a dozen clones of the boy appear.

"That's a very popular move," Hiryu remembered how Ranma had used the exact same move against him "I might have to learn it someday." Hiryu could only make his after images become solid, and only the ones that were close to him. That is why Ranma felt he was being attack by 4 Hiryu's at the same time during their battle.

"Come on dudes! Let's kick his ass!" One of the Bart's said before the rest shout in agreement an tried to swarm Hiryu.

[x]

The fight continued for a few hours and it moved from solid ground to on top of the surface of a very big lake where Bart could launch fire jutsu after fire jutsu indiscriminately.

Bart remained on the surface thanks to the chakra he release constantly from the bottom of his feet, but Hiryu who couldn't use chakra had to use a different technique Ranma helped him develop.

Hiryu used the 'Cold' nature of his Plasma Energy to release from the bottom of his feet and freeze the surface he was standing on, and only when he was standing on it, because when he moved his feet away, the water returned to its original state. The only downside of this way of 'water walking' was that he could only use Cold Plasma for fighting while doing this.

"This has been fun man." Bart said while he was recovering his breath. "How about we put an end this for today with one final attack?"

"Hn. Bring it!" Hiryu dared as he crouched slightly waiting to see what kind of attack Bart would unleash.

"Ok, dude. You ask for this!" Bart then cupped his hands and brought them to his side. "Ka-me-!" He began as energy started to gather in his hands

Lisa who had been silently watching the fight with interest, shouted to her brother. "Bart! Don't you dare use that move!" But it was too late; her bother wasn't going to stop.

"Ha-Me-" Bart kept gather energy and the sphere on his hands grew more and more.

Hiryu also knew that move, Ranma had used on him one for the strider to cut it in half with his Reflective Cypher. But know he was limited to only Cold Plasma, something that wouldn't have effect on the devastation wave.

Then Bart 'teleported' from one side of the lake to right in front of Hiryu. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He shouted as he unleashed his powerful attack. Unfortunately for the boy, Hiryu was able to dodge such close ranged attack with his incredible speed. But what Hiryu didn't expect was that Bart had planned for him to dodge the kamehameha, because from below the surface of the lake, another Bart shot up and rammed a spiraling orb of energy towards him. "RASENGAN!"

Instead of blocking or even dodging, Hiryu extended his arm and grabbed Bart's arm just before the Rasengan connected and shout. "SPARK!" Then from his gauntlet a torrent of electricity entered Bart's body. Still, it didn't stop the spiraling orb from connecting.

 **BOOM!**

[x]

"I can't believe you did something as stupid as that!" Lisa scolded Bart as she was using medical chakra cure him from his injuries, which she had learned to do from a Naruto Loop when she replaced Sakura."I told you not to burn down trees or blow up a mountain, and then what did you did? You blew up a mountain with a Kamehameha!"

"I said I was sorry!" Bart retorted. "You don't have to nag at me all the…ow! That hurt!"

"Stop moving or I'll leave you to heal on your own!" Lisa threatened and Bart finally shut up and stopped moving and let Lisa do her work.

Hiryu watched from the side amused by the scene. He also had taken some damage from the fight and was slowly healing his injuries using his Medical tech. A small implement of his right gauntlet that channeled special waves that soothe the pain, close injuries, and heal and regrow tissue. The process was a very slow and long but when Hiryu channeled some of his Plasma energy to his tech, it made it work faster.

"So, do you want to keep training tomorrow?" Hiryu asked which caused Bart to grin.

"Of course, man! That was a lot of fun. I can't wait to kick your ass tomorrow!" To his side, Lisa gave him a glare.

"And tomorrow, you better not destroy another mountain or I'll not heal your injuries again!" Lisa once again threatened.

"What about you join us?" Bart suggested. "I know you can fight, I know you can use chakra and magic, not to mention you can transform in a sailor scout."

"Bart! You know I hate violence!" Lisa reprimanded. She much preferred to solve her problems with words and diplomacy rather than with punches and explosions.

"Oh come on!" Bart insisted.

"Lisa," Hiryu stepped in. "I respect and honor your plight of non violence. But there are times where words and diplomacy fail or aren't viable. During those times, fighting is the only answer."

"But…Hiryu…!"

"But fighting does not always mean violence. No. During those times one must fight to protect those who can't do so for themselves. To help those who are in need. To reach out for a better future and return peace to where unrest lurks. That is why one must fight."

Lisa remained silent while she pondered Hiryu's words, and after a whole minute she said.

"Ok, I'll train with you!"

"Wooh! Alright Lisa! You and me as a team what do you say?" Bart cheered making her smile.

"I say…let's kick some butt!"

* * *

Years passed and the three of them continued their tradition of going to 'camping' trips every summer. And each time was just as fun and stress relieving as the first time. But good things come to an end and the Loop was about to do so too.

"This is it. The last day of the Loop." Lisa, who after 25 years still was 8 years old, said sighing. "I guess this is where we bid goodbye to each other." She said looking up to Hiryu. "It was great knowing you and having you as our dad."

"I too feel the same." Hiryu replied. "You may not really be my children, but you would always hold a place in my heart." He really mean it, this past decades had been a very gratifying experience.

"Thank you Hiryu," Lisa gave a small smile. "I hope we can meet again sometime."

"I hope so too."

"Yuck. Could you stop it with the sappy stuff?" Bart grounded. "You are making me sick."

Hiryu just chuckled knowing Bart was just acting tough, deep down he too felt 'sappy' too.

"I'll miss you to Bart." Hiryu said as he brushed Bart's hair with his hand in a fatherly fashion. "Let's spar when we meet again, and show me how strong you got!"

"You betcha, Old man!"

"Oh! Before I go, I wish to give you this." Hiryu took out a big book from his subspace pocket and handed it to Lisa. "Here!"

"What is it?" Lisa asked as she opened it. It was full of photos of all of them, and the many moments they shared. "When did you get all of these Photos?" She never remembered having a camera for some of these pictures.

"Option-D" Hiryu explained. "Although it serves more like a map and analyzer, it can also snap pictures and save them in its memory. That's where they came from."

"I don't know what to say…" Lisa turned the pages to look at the many pictures there were. So many happy moments and fun adventures were recorded in the pictures.

"Wow! Look at that! I look so cool in it!" Bart pointed to a picture of him in mid-air throwing a gigantic fireball from his mouth. "This is so awesome!"

"Thanks Hiryu." Lisa was grateful for the album, but she had to ask. "But why did you decided to make this?"

"Because of Ranma…" Hiryu answered.

"Ranma? The original Looper?" Bart asked surprised. That guy was so cool and it was a trip to meet him.

"Yes." Hiryu nodded. "Before my Loop with him ended, he handed me two scrolls. One for when I meet the Original Seven, and the other one was for me."

"What did it have inside?" Lisa asked curiously.

"Inside, were many photos of me and him during the loop, alongside a note that said: ' _Always remember the good times_.' So I decided to make albums of all the Loops I visit and record all the good times I had in them. So I made this album and a copy that you are holding."

"That's so nice of you, Dad!" Lisa said with tears forming in her eyes as she gave Hiryu a big hug. "Thank you so much. I'm going to miss you!"

"I'm going to miss you too Lisa. And you too Bart."

A few hours later the Loop came to an end. But the bonds between the Simpson children and the Strider would last forever.

* * *

 **Omake:**

Lisa Simpson, the eternal 2nd grader sighed as she was doing her homework.

None of the other members of her family were 'Awake', not even Bart. So that meant that there was a stealth Anchor somewhere.

 _'Probably out of reach_.' Lisa theorized since no one answered to her ping.

It felt strange to have a lonely loop like this one in her world. It made her feel even more alienated than in 'baseline'. Still, she wasn't going to let that bring her down. Awake or not, she loved her family despite their eccentricities.

"YOU STUPID THING!" Lisa heard her father shout outside. He was trying to construct a grill on their backyard and failing at it. Again. She would've helped her father, but every time this particular 'episode' of their lives came around, something would caused them to fail.

The universe really didn't want the Simpson family to have that grill.

"Oh oh! The English side's ruined! Must use French instructions!" Homer said fumbling in wet cement " _Le grill…_? What the hell is that?"

Lisa just chuckled. In hindsight, most of her family's baseline shenanigans were pretty fun to watch as an outsider.

"Now let's see, where did I left of…?" Lisa turned back to her assignment. Even in baseline it was a piece of cake and not even really all that important, but she made the effort to always be a perfect A student.

Lisa continued her homework as her father's cursing and grunts of frustration filled the background.

Sometime later when Lisa was finished, she heard her father outside also finishing his 'project.'" _WHY?!_ Why must life be so hard!? Why must I fail in _every_ attempt at masonry?!"  
Suddenly a bright light erupted from the backyard and reflected all into the house.

"Don't tell me Dad tried to use fire this time?" Lisa said as she rushed out the house to prevent her father from having a fatal accident. But when she opened the door to the backyard, a strange and disturbing sight greeted her.

"Homer Simpson. You have great rage in your heart. You belong to the Red Lantern Corps."

"Oh crud."

 **Homer Rage Lantern addendum:**

"Wait just a second! If Homer Simpson is a Red Lantern, then where is Hal Jordan, Hmmm, hmmm?"  
"Where did you come from?" Lisa turned to look at the ever cynical Jeff Albertson, also known as Comic Book Guy.  
"Officially this is the worst Variant Loop ever!"  
"What!?"


	6. World of Doom

5.1

Gathered around a large bonfire, a large group of people were resting for the night after a long day of work. After dinner was ready everyone ate and drink to their hearts content.

"Tala! Tala! Please sing us a song!" The children asked to a young woman with long hair who was resting on the side enjoying the heat of the flames.

"Of course!" Talathia said with a smile. "Which song do you want to hear tonight?"

"The Song of the Hero!" One little girl said, making Tala chuckle when rest joined in agreement.

"Again? But you have heard that song many times." She pointed out, but the children were insistent.

"Please Tala! We want to hear it!"

"Ok, ok, I shall sing you the Song of the Hero." Tali stood up and she made her way to the center were everyone could see her perform.

Without even asking for it, some of the adults brought up some musical instruments ready for the nights show. Drums started pounding and a violin let out a very energetic tune. Then Talathia began dancing at the rhythm of the music and soon began singing the tale of the hero.

* * *

Long time ago there lived a man, who would many consider just another low-life; a lost wanderer that traveled aimlessly throughout the land. In order to earn his keep, for only three _maravedís_ , you could rent his sword and honor for low luster jobs and dirty deeds.

Who could blame him really? These were harsh times where only the rich, the strong and the men of faith ruled over all others.

But one day, he was hired for another kind of job. This one paid handsomely and all he had to do was to transport a 'package' across the land. Said package was a small little girl whom real worth this lowlife didn't know nor he didn't ask for. Having accepted the job he made his way through the country.

The journey would be a long one, it would last many weeks or even more since their destiny was a caravan that kept on moving from place to place, so time was of the essence.

The first days of the journey were spent in total silence; the hired sword would never utter a single word unless it was a command. His care spent several days like this before gathering enough courage to start a conversation with him.

The man refused to even give a name or let his charge see most of his face. He wasn't the most honest or open of men. The only thing that stood out of the man besides his strange colored eyes or weird garbs was a red symbol on his chest. It was awfully smudged by the passage of time, but for her it looked like a red cross.

To the girl it looked like the cross of the order of Santiago. The cross was meant to represent the chivalric nature of those who wear it and their commitment to wield their sword in the name of God. Although she never saw him ever pray towards any particular god, she could tell he lived up to the cross in his chest.

He was a brave man and true to his word. Never during their journey was she ever cold or with hunger. Not even night terrors came for her because he was always there watching over her. But that didn't mean he always sheltered such piousness.

Traveling only the two of them, they were targets for all sorts of thieves, raiders and other hostiles. It was in these moments were the man would unsheathe his sword and with the power like that of a hundred men and a sword whose edge shone brighter than the sun, he ended any opponents without hesitation but never without a good reason.

It soon was apparent to the charge that the man with the cross of Santiago, was no mere man. Something mysterious and esoteric seemed to envelop him all the time, not to mention that he never seemed to sleep or eat. Also his age was a riddle; physically he looked younger than what his supposed age was. But she could tell by those eyes of his was much older. Those strange colored eyes reflected a strange sense of calm and peace of a timeless soul that had lived over a hundred years in times much worse than these and his deep voice told of ancients tales of over a thousand battles, all of which he had won to tell the tale.

As times passed, the girl's fascination for the man bearing the cross only grew more and more. She started following him with her gaze everywhere and never missed any detail of his. But no matter how much she tried, she never seemed to learn anything new from him.

That is until one day, there was a battle against a dozen 'holy knights' that referred to her as 'devil-worshiper' and 'pagan scum' and wanted the man with the red cross to hand her over to them so her soul could be cleansed from evil by divine punishment. After the man refused, the battle ended as fast as it started. Among the defeated knights, one cursed the man with harsh words claiming that he too was tainted by evil and that it was heresy to bare that red cross on his chest if he associated and defended pagan scum like her.

Hours after the battle, the man offered her to learn from him. She didn't know what prompted the man to offer her such thing, but she wholeheartedly agreed. What he taught her, opened her eyes to the world at large and showed her that not everything was bleak and hopeless.

"Sharpen your mind."

"Make use of your ingenuity."

"Know when to play it safe or to risk all out."

She learned to never believe everything that she saw or heard, her senses could be easily fooled and that could cost her life. She learned to trust her instincts to make the right call and save her life. He also taught her to recognize how and when to fight her battles and that sometimes not fighting was a way to win too.

After she was mentally ready, he taught her the way of 'Magic.'

"Develop your latent talents, make use of _Mancias_. And learn to feel the world that surround us and use that to bend it under your will."

Never before in her life had the girl experience something so exhilarating and empowering as become one with nature and the world around her in her short existence. But with the use of great power came the duty of using said power for good and never with selfish intentions.

But every journey must come to an end. And that end came when the man and the girl finally arrived at their destination. A large caravan of her people; they have been traveling across the land in order to find settlement in a place where they will find no persecution.

The little girl had ask him to come along with them, but the man refused claiming that just like her there were others out there who were in need. But the man promised to see her someday, in this life or the other.

But before they could part ways, a large cavalry of Holy Knights, that could pass off as a small army, had followed their trail with the intent of eradicating every last one of them and brought back the head of the Heretic who 'betrayed' the red cross of the order of Santiago to help pagan scum.

In one last act of bravery, the man with the red cross ordered the caravan to flee while he dealt with the cavalry. The last thing the little girl ever saw of the man, was the blinding edge of his sword which he used to stop the small army in their tracks and didn't let them take a single step to chase the fleeing caravan.

To this day, every man, woman and child remembered the bravery of the man bearing the red cross of the order of Santiago and how he had protect them from the Holy Knights. And his tale would be told forever to their children and the children of their children and so forth forever.

* * *

After the song was over, everyone cheered and drank in honor of the great hero.

"Tala! Tala!" One of the children call for her attention. "Whatever happened to the hero?"

"Nobody knows, but some say he is still out there still helping others and protecting us from afar." Tlathia told to the curious child.

"What about the little girl in the story?" The same child asked. "Is she ok? What happened to her?"

Talathia just smiled and answered the youngling's question with. "That's a story for another night!"Which made the curious children whine, wanting to hear more. But soon they relented when Talathia wouldn't bulge and they went back to play without any worries.

Talathia smiled as she watched them go and then let out a deep sigh, dancing and singing was very tiring at her age despite how young she seemed to look. Unlike what her youthful appearance may show, she had lived over 60 years and still looked no more than 20.

None of the adults that she had seen grow really questioned it, because they knew she was the bearer of great power and magic that protected everyone from invaders. Despite many years of traveling and finally settling in a remote land, persecution never really went away, but now they had her to defend their people just like the hero from the song did many years ago when he fought that small army so she could live alongside the rest of her people.

"Someday this land will flourish and my people would never have to fear from invaders ever again." Yes someday Latveria would be the most prosper nation of the land.

* * *

5.2

Strider Hiryu woke up from his slumber. It had been a few centuries since he waited for the end of this Loop, but years went by and the end never came.

After traveling all over the globe searching for a sign of any local looper using the PING, that Ranma had taught him how to use properly, he came empty handed. It appeared that he was the only looper at the time.

As years turned into decades Hiryu decided to just wait and not interfere with any sort of big events beyond what he already done. So he witnessed the progressive change of human civilization into a more contemporary era. During those years, Hiryu spent his time looking for inconsistencies or variations that could tell him if he was visiting another universe's Loop of if he had somehow Loop in his own universe way back into the past.

The answer to that question was answered when he came in possession with a strange medallion that was said to be otherworldly and give powers to whoever wields it. Knowing he couldn't just wave the story as a mere myth, unfortunately he obtained just one half of the medallion and kept it with him all the time in order to not let it fall into the wrong hands. Never could he find the other half.

The result of carrying around said medallion was that he began to be hunted by strange spirits and demonic creatures from 'hell', confirming once and for all that he was visiting a foreign Loop, since there had never been any demons in his own. Fighting said demons was more of a chore than a daunting task thanks to the power of the medallion, which granted him the ability to hurt them and fight back. And with time, said demonic entities wised-up and started to leave him alone.

So that's how he spent his time for over 500 years, traveling from place to place using the ping to find another Looper, fighting and vanquishing demons using a strange medallion and staying in remote places away from civilization.

That was until the first years from the 20th century, when political tension was on the rise which soon would let to the First World War. Hiryu, feared that he couldn't restrain himself from interfering in the century to come, so he hid under a mountain and slept for a hundred years.

Hiryu woke up from his slumber thanks to his robotic companion Option-D that rang and alarm to inform him 100 years had already passed and that it was time to leave his resting place.

After changing his clothes for a spare and equipped all of his paraphernalia, Hiryu was ready to face this new world.

"Option D, update map scans." The Strider ordered and his option quickly flew into the air and did a quick scan on the environment. The scan revealed that there several towns and cities relatively near to his location. Hiryu decided to head off directly to the most populous one, in order to blend in the heavy population. According to D, the city was called Las Vegas.

Walking through the busy streets of Las Vegas and seeing the extravagant billboards, reminded Hiryu of the less than urbanized small towns from the years 2048 to 4048, except a lot less technological advanced. Thankfully, he had managed to blend with the citizens without raising much suspicion. Sure, people look at him and his clothes weirdly, but the stares would last a second or two before they disregarded him as just another weird guy on the street.

Hiryu took the opportunity to assess the level of technology people of the 21st century had in this Loop. They still relied on grounded cars that used petroleum based gasoline and used wireless networks for their cell phones on the street. Not so advanced as to what had been in his own Loop, but that was because of Meio's influence that caused a boom in technology, probably because of his alien origin and strange magic-like powers.

Now that he was inside the city and saw nothing wrong with their technological levels, at least those available to the general population, his first order of the day was to access a computer terminal and analyze the current state of the world to see what his next move should be.

Other than destroy demons that came his way, of course.

Looking around, Hiryu found a place whose business was to provide internet access to the public for a limited time in exchange for money; a cybercafé. Something that didn't exist in his world or at least stopped existence before 2048; He thankful to both Lisa and Bart for teaching him about all the things he could find in the years 1980 to 2014.

Inside the building, Hiryu find a very bored looking female attendant behind the counter. "Welcome, how may I help you?" She asked clearly with no enthusiasm at all.

"I require a computer unit." Hiryu informed not bothered by the attendant's indifference.

"Two dollars the first ten minutes, then 1 dollar for extra ten minutes each." She drone-out her line automatically, as if it was a reflex.

Hiryu nodded and placed 50 dollars in the counter, which bought him 430 minutes of computer use. The woman just took the money and told him to use whatever unit he wanted. Hiryu took a computer away from the attendant's sight and quickly connected Option D to it.

D surfed through the ocean of information that was the Internet and quickly began downloading all sorts of useful information about the world at large. Like the history of the modern world, stock exchange, placement of military bases around the world, etc, etc.

Hiryu continued to watch over D while it was doing its job, when suddenly the machine alerted him of a situation that was currently happening almost a thousand miles away from his current position.

In a place known as the New Mexico Dessert there were a concentration of heavily armed military equipment and forces deployed to stop a rampaging creature denominated the Hulk. According to some files D got from hacking into the US military and from an organization named SHIELD, the Hulk was a high profile menace and target for both institutions for its power to destroy everything in its way.

This Hulk creature was not only responsible for millions upon millions of property damage but also for the loss of hundreds of innocents' lives that were unfortunate enough to be on its path. Hiryu, despite his mercenary upbringing, he believed in protecting innocent lives and in delivering not only justice and retribution.

Leaving the cybercafé, Hiryu called upon Option B, Tetrapodal Robo-Panther, and riding upon its back towards the New Mexico Desert where the Hulk was located.

[x]

It didn't matter how much Hulkbuster units they sent, Hulk would tear them apart in an instant. The only thing that the USA military had accomplished was to anger the beast even further, inadvertently making it stronger.

"Sir, we have suffered a lot of heavy losses! We should retreat!" suggested one of the officers to his commanding officer watching the fight from inside a mobile command center far away from the action.

"No."

Any other official in charge would've order a retreat in order to save as many lives for his forces as possible but for General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross, retreat wasn't an option. He would sacrifice almost anything or anyone to put a stop to the menace known as Hulk; the Moby Dick to his captain Ahab, though he would never, ever accept that comparison.

"Sir, our men are dying out there!" the officer insisted but General Ross didn't budge in his decision. He'll be damned if he let the Hulk escape once more. "We shall call for back up! SHIELD, maybe the Avengers!"

At the mention of that name General Ross, turned to glare at the officer with silent fury. "Do not mention that never ever again in my presence, officer." He said with a cold tone that sent shivers to all officers present. "I will never ask for back-up to a team of freaks that have let Hulk roam free for so many years, and even accept him into their little group."

"Sir! Radar has detected a fast moving unidentifiable man sized object that is in course of collision with the Hulk!" informed another officer.

"What?! Give me visual!" The general order but the officer in charge of radar shook his head.

"Sorry, Sir! But the object is moving too fast for us to capture it on-screen!" He answered slightly afraid of his superiors reaction, "The object will collide with Hulk in less than 30 seconds!"

"Damn!" Ross cursed slamming his fist on a console. "It must be one of those meddling super powered freaks!"

"What are your orders, sir?" Another officer asked.

"Keep your attention on the Hulk, whoever this freak is, he could distract Hulk long enough for us to prepare an attack to finally capture him!"

[x]

Hulk was on the process of tearing a tank in two when a he felt several small impacts on his back. He looked over his shoulder to find several of some sort of gooey things sticking on his back, only for them to explode a second later.

Angered, Hulk turned completely and found a short figure of Strider Hiryu standing a several feet away. "HULK SQUASH PUNY HUMAN!" he roared but the figure didn't show any signs of intimidation.

"Creature! I'll give you one chance to stand down and surrender!" Hiryu warned coldly. "If not I'll be force to put you down!" he added as he took out his Cypher and got into a fighting position.

"YOU BEAT HULK?" the green beast asked sounding offended. "HULK THE STRONGEST THERE IS!" he roared as he jumped towards Hiryu with the intent of squashing him like a bug.

Strider slide right under the creature before it landed on him and jumped onto his back to ram his sword into its back, but the creature hide proved too strong for it to be pierced with ease. Still, Hiryu managed to draw blood.

Hulk, having felt pain for that attack, sweep his enormous hands to brush Strider off his back, but Hiryu jumped away from its back before he could even connect.

Strider was about to continue with his assault, when suddenly D informed him of something.

"Warning: the creature's blood emanates high levels of radiation!"

Radiation? So Hulk's blood was toxic. Hiryu was immune to radiation but only to a certain degree. He wasn't going to risk the probability of the Hulk's blood poisoning him. So that meant he had to change strategies.

Then the light emanating from the edge of his Cypher turned from red to blue.

Hulk not waiting for just a second, launch himself towards Hiryu but this time instead of evading, the Strider jumped head on towards him. Strider, been much faster than Hulk, managed to hit him several times before the green giant could even blink.

Hulk tried to retaliate but found out that the right half of his body was covered and trapped on ice. Not letting it bother him, he forced his muscles and broke away the ice in millions of pieces, only to roar in pain. The half of his body that had been frozen for just a few seconds, showed very clear indications of skin and muscle deterioration caused by frostbite.

That was the power of Hiryu's Cold Plasma. His Cypher frozen edge could reach temperatures up to the absolute zero (−273.15°C or −459.67°F) freezing anything that came in contact with it, even at molecular level, which in turn would cause pure substances to form perfect crystals causing entropy to also become zero. Of course Hiryu would never attempt to reach absolute zero, fearing that he would break physics and thermodynamics.

(Who would even want to reduce entropy to zero inside a crystal, anyway?)

Anyhow, Hiryu's plan to defeat Hulk by deteriorating his muscles from cold looked like it might work, that is until he noticed the skin and muscle slowly regeneration to its former self.

'High speed regeneration…' why wasn't he surprised? He knew it had felt a little too easy. Well, if freezing him wasn't viable, then it was time to try something else.

Then the light emanating from the edge of Hiryu's Cypher turned from Blue to Orange.

[x]

"I can't believe this!" One of the officers in the mobile command center exclaimed as he pointed towards the monitor showing the fight. "He is fighting the Hulk with such ease! He might win!"

This statement was received by cheers from the rest, except for one serious General.

"Fools! Don't act as if we have won!" Ross reprimanded his men. "In fact that man is making everything worse!" When the rest of the crew began mumbling in confusion, he elaborated. "They way to defeat Hulk is to tire him out not to overpower him! The more this fool fights, Hulk gets angrier, and therefore he becomes stronger!"

"But sir…" One of the crew members tried to speak but was silenced by Ross' glare. After that everyone's attention returned to the monitor which showed the stranger slashing Hulk with his sword.

"That fool might kill us all."

[x]

Back to the fight, Hiryu was using his superior speed and agility to evade the enraged strikes of the roaring Hulk. He hasn't even been graced by one yet, but he knew that even one punch from the creature would spell defeat for him.

Every time Hiryu evaded a strike, he would counter attack with six of his own and every time the Burst Edge of his Cypher came in contact with the creature's green skin it would cut it and instantly burn the surrounding skin, leaving burn marks all over Hulk's body, making the regeneration work double time which meant it was slow to cure the injuries.

This Hulk was proving to be one of the most difficult enemies Hiryu had to deal with, since he was forcing the Strider into a battle of attrition. Something he had no experience with besides those training sessions he had with Ranma.

Hulk by his part, was getting more frustrated each time he missed Hiryu and received cuts and burn for it. It was then when he finally had enough and clapped his enormous hands with such force it created a shockwave that send everything in front of him flying away, including Hiryu.

As the Strider flew through the air, Hulk jumped after him to deliver a powerful punch to end the fight. Hiryu remaining calm, then he extended his left arm and pointed it directly at Hulk. As Hulk fist was about to connect, Hiryu disappeared faster than the eye could see with a 'splashing' sound.

Before Hulk could even comprehend that his target disappeared out of thin air, he suddenly roar in pain when he felt his entire body burning. Hulk then fall to the ground enveloped in flames.

"RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Hulk roared and desperately tried to put the flames away but in doing so, some of them get into his eyes blinding him. In frustration he started trashing around without rhyme or reason, slowly tiring himself.

After the flames died out and his eyes regenerated enough for him to see again, he turned around and around trying to find Hiryu so he could kill him for hurting him like this.

Then a blinding orange light shined over him making Hulk look up only to find Hiryu descending at great speeds with his sword been the thing producing said light.

* SCHING*

[x]

On the command center, everyone was speechless as to what they had just witnessed. They remained like that until one of them broke the silence.

"D-did h-he…?"

"Yes, he did."

[x]

Hiryu stood still as regained his breath. That last Charged Cypher Attack was a new improve version he had been working in. By overcharging his Cypher with most of his reserve of Plasma Energy, its edge would extend far beyond its normal reach, not to mention its cutting ability would multiply exponentially. The only downside was the drainage he felt in his stamina and his Energy Regeneration would take far longer than normal.

That meant his was vulnerable. But right now, he didn't have to worry about that because the Hulk was retreating; jumping away while carrying the arm he had just lost thanks to Hiryu's new CCA. The strider didn't even had to worry for radiation caused by Hulk's blood, because his Burst Chypher had cauterized the wound before it even blood had a chance to spill.

Hiryu watched the retreating form of the beast jumping away headed deeper into the dessert. He knew he had to give chase, but before doing that he had to dispose of something. Looking around the 'battlefield', he search for all the spots were Hulk's radioactive blood had been spilt and used his Cold Plasma to freeze it and kept it in a sealed container so he could dispose of it later.

After he had collected all of the blood he could find, he summoned Option C, Robot Eagle, to lift him up the ground to he could do aerial reconnaissance to find the Hulk.

[x]

Everyone on the mobile command center was left in silence until General Ross finally snapped out of it and barked orders. "Don't just stand around! Give chase now!"

"But sir, All units are out of commission!" he was informed by one of the officers.

"Then give chase with this unit!" the general order once more.

"We can't do that, sir."

"Why not?"

"Because we appear to be frozen solid, sir."

"What?"

[x]

An hour later, Hiryu had finally managed to track the Hulk. It appeared that he had taking refuge inside an empty cave, probably trying to mend his wounds. This was the perfect opportunity to sneak in and take out the creature by surprise, but then the Strider was finally inside, he found no monster, but a single person.

Seeing him as no threat, Hiryu decided to make his presence known and maybe help the man out. "Mister, do you need some assistance."

His sudden appearance made the man turned and back away into a wall scared. "No! Stay away! Don't come near me!"

Hiryu didn't expect such a strong reaction out of him, but he obeyed and made no effort to approach the man even further. "Relax, I have not come here to hurt you! I just want to help."

"Please I beg you! Leave me alone!" The scared man pleaded almost in tears.

Hiryu was wondering how to approach the man gently so he could help him, but then noticed a scar on the man's arm. It was a burn mark that was exactly where he had cut the Hulk's arm. It didn't take him a full second before he realized who this man was.

"You are the Hulk…" The strider stated, making the man cringe.

"Please stay away! I don't want to turn into it again!"

"Calm down!" Hiryu said again "I will not come any closer, but I just want to talk with you, is that okay with you?" Hiryu made have use a slight tactic used when negotiating for hostages with a hostile, but he really meant it. He wanted to talk.

"Talk about what?" the man that was hulk questioned nervously but a lot less agitated than before.

"About the world…" Hiryu answered much to the man's confusion.

"The world…?"

"Yes. I'm called Strider Hiryu, and I'm not from this world…."

The two of them talked for hours.

After Hiryu introduced himself and talked a little about him, he managed to gain a little trust from the man named Bruce Banner, also known as The Hulk.

Hiryu managed to get Bruce to tell him about the world they resided in, by pretending to be from another world, which wasn't exactly a lie. After that, Hiryu prompted Bruce into talking about the Hulk, its history and the struggle it was to keep it contained.

Bruce was a tragic figure, with his life filled with bad luck and misfortune whenever he went. And worst of all, he really felt responsible for not been able to get rid off or even control the Hulk and the lives that had been lost because of it.

It has been years since he gave up trying to get rid of the Hulk and instead he tried to control it, but somehow it was different every time. Sometimes Bruce could stay under control, other times he could influence its behavior subconsciously, and then there were the time when Hulk was no other than a furious beast with no control whatsoever.

"Do you remember what happens when you are the Hulk?" Hiryu asked.

"Sometimes…" Thought at times he wished he couldn't.

"Do you remember our fight?"

"Somewhat…"Bruce hesitated,"I'm not really sure, but if you fought the Hulk and you're alive that means you are very strong." And not many of those who manage to survive, were as free of injuries as Hiryu looked. "Hiryu…is it possible for you to kill me…?" he asked somberly "So that Hulk no longer exists?"

"I...I am not sure."Hiryu answered honestly "Back on our fight, I manage to make him retreat, but Hulk managed to recover from all of the injuries caused by my attacks."Hulk was one of the most resistant opponents he had ever faced "And as you told me, trying to kill you as you are now would only make you transform, making Hulk rampage again…"

"So it is useless…"Banner looked down disappointed. "No one will be able to stop the hulk…"

"That is not true." Hiryu interrupted. "I was able to stop him, made him retreat. I can do so again."

"Even so! You can't always be there to stop me from transforming and rampaging!"

"Yes, I can. And I will." Hiryu looked at Banner in the eye with such conviction that Bruce didn't raise further objections. "I swear I'll stop the Monster whenever it comes out, but I want you to do something in return."

"What?" he asked intrigued.

"I want you to never give up on the idea of ever controlling the beast." Hiryu requested. "Power like yours is destructive, but it also can be used to save the world, and from I know it appears you have done so before with these so called avengers."

"But…"

"I believe you can do it, Bruce. I believe in you." Hiryu added, making Banner reconsider. Hiryu wasn't exactly one for inspiring speeches but his previous experience as a father for 25 years, did help him a little. "Now, I think it is time for me to go."

"To go…? Where?" Bruce asked.

"From you have told me. There are people out there." Hiryu explained. "People with powers far beyond that of normal humans. People that use their power to their own nefarious benefit and don't care who they stomp on to get what they want; I'm going after that kind of people."

"You want to be a hero…" Bruce said.

"No. A Strider."

[x]

Hiryu stood up on top of one the tallest building in New York, after he had drop off Bruce in a desolated place where he could remained undetected from the army or SHIELD for some time; now he was looking upon the city that never sleeps contemplating his next move.

New York was famous for housing a large number of 'Super Heroes' and 'Super Villains' alike. And Hiryu had managed to stop some of the latter while avoiding the former. He did a good job, if the drop rate of crimes in the city was any indication. But he couldn't help but feel that it was all small potatoes as they said. No. He wanted to go after the Really Big Fish.

Suddenly, Option-D sounded a small alarm that indicated it had found something for him. Hiryu read upon the status report and found what he was looking for.

A tyrant that had tried countless times to try and take over the world before, only to be stopped by the heroes of this world. But in the end they could never capture him, because this tyrant was a ruler in charge of a small but powerful country, meaning that he had diplomatic immunity and couldn't be trialed for his crimes against humanity.

But Hiryu didn't have any ties with any government or organization. He had nothing stopping him from delivering justice and ending this reign of terror.

"Victor Von Doom."

* * *

5.3

Latveria.

A small nation Latveria is located between the nations of Hungary, Serbia, and Romania. Populated mostly mixed European stock and Romani, colloquially known as gypsies.

Hiryu remembered the time he had helped a caravan of Romani flee towards the small country during the last days of the medieval ages. It supposedly was a land where the Romani could leave in peace without fear of persecution.

Now, it was small superpower ruled by the tyrannical hand of Victor von Doom, also known as the super villain Doctor Doom. The boarders were completely closed to all outsiders and everything that entered or left the country was supervised by Doom. Not to mention the nation 'Police Force' which consisted on super advance robots that patrolled the cities day and night enforcing Doom's law.

The more that Hiryu looked at it, only one image came to mind; The City of Kazakh under the ever watchful eye of Grandmaster Meio. And similarly like the Grandmaster, Hiryu was going to infiltrate the city and assassinate its monarch.

Far too long has Doom gotten away scot-free from his dastardly actions and crimes against humanity. Now it was time to pay.

"Target Acquired. Beginning Mission!"

[x]

Infiltrating the country had been easy enough, I fact too easy for his tastes. With how similar Doom reminded him of Meio, Hiryu was sure that his presence had somehow already been detected and that a trap was already set up for him when he arrived to the capital of Latveria, Doomstadt, where Castle von Doom was in.

Hiryu confirmed his hunch when he found an army of several thousand robots waiting for him, all of them equipped with protective armor and heavy artillery, not to mention several flying drones for aerial assault and support.

As Hiryu looked over the sheer size of Doom's 'welcome party', he couldn't help but comment.

"Is this all?" He asked almost disappointed. Had it been a hundred thousand troops he might have started to worry a little. Doom's Army was puny compared with the forces of Grandmaster Meio.

"You have trespassed into Latveria territory without permission! The punishment is Death!" declared one of the robots before the entire force started advancing towards him, and shooting him with their weapons.

"I can't waste my time playing with toys." If Doom wanted to play like that, Hiryu could also play. Concentrating a large amount of his Plasma Energy throughout his body, he infused it into his reliable Options.

"LEGION! GO!"

Then his Options were liberated alongside a large number of duplicates, forming an entire army of Robo-Panthers, Eagles, and Dipodal Saucers. And without further command both armies clashed against one and other in a cyber-carnage like no other.

[x]

Inside castle von Doom, Hiryu found many robots serving as the last line of defense between any invader and their master. The Strider quickly disposed of them. They couldn't even hold a candle to Meio's personal body guards that could move as fast as he did back in baseline 2048.

Having disposed of the last remaining guard, Hiryu made his way into the throne room where he found Victor von Doom sitting regally on his throne.

"I see that you have managed to get this far, assassin." Doom said in a very composed tone. "Doom commends you in your prowess." Then he drank from a golden challis before throwing it to the floor. "But intruding inside Latveria, not to mention Doom's Castle, it's a crime punishable by DEATH!"

"The only one how would die today it is you, Doom!" Hiryu answered back. "For your crimes against humanity, you are sentenced to death!"

Doom, looking rather unamused, stood up from his throne. "No man speaks to Doom this way. Such insolence will not go unpunished!" From his hand, Doom unleashed a powerful blast of energy directly at Hiryu, who jumped out of the way and retaliated by throwing several Burst-Infused Kunai at Doom.

The Kunai flew towards Doom, only to be stopped in mid-air and explode before reaching their target. Looking closer Hiryu noticed a distinctive force field surrounding Doom. "Fool. Attacking Doom with knives is like throwing pebbles at a hurricane." Speaking of wind currents, Doom extended his arms to his sides and summoned a powerful windblast that sent Strider flying away.

"Even hurricanes must come to an end! And once they are gone they are fleeting memory and a reminder of the destruction they caused." Hiryu said knowing how people like Doom love the sound of their own voices. If he gets him to be chatty, Doom would sooner or later be distracted enough for Hiryu to capitalize on that mistake.

"Doom reign will never end! My legacy shall be eternal!" Doom continued to attack, summoning and launching all sorts of energy blasts to Hiryu's way.

"What gives you the right to claim yourself superior and rule over others?" Hiryu retorted. "What sets you apart?"

"I? I am but a humble servant of my people! And what my people need is a strong ruler that keeps them safe for others and from themselves! That is Doom's job!" Doom answered before throwing Hiryu's words back at him. "What about you assassin? What gives you the right to invade my country to foolishly try to kill me?"

"I may be a mercenary!"Something he had no choice in the matter when growing up. "But I'm also a protector of humanity!" Hiryu declared."And I do so by eradicating evil like you from it."

"You may believe yourself above it," Doom sneered. "But you are just a killer that deluded himself as a savior. Pathetic!"

And as soon as those words left the tyrant's mouth, Hiryu moved at incredible speed. "You may believe so." Hiryu said standing right behind Doom. "But you are already dead." Then Doom's head fell to the ground followed by the headless body.

"Mission Complete." Hiryu announced triumphantly.

Only to be immediately hit by a powerful energy blast.

"I concede you a small victory for been able to defeat my double." Dr. Doom said as he entered the room. "But in the end you proved to be a minor distraction at best." Doom gaze upon the body on the floor and thought how he could use the assassins head to send a message to everyone for those who mislead themselves thinking they could take on him. "No one defeats Doom."

But then, Hiryu quickly stood up ready for round 2.

"You still draw breath?" Doom asked almost raising an eyebrow in mild surprise. "Consider that your one stroke of luck. You may now have minutes to live instead of seconds."

Hiryu by his part was still stunned, not by the power blast since he had been hit by those before. No, he was perplexed that what he had been fighting before had been just a copy. A machine.

 _'Impossible_.' No Machine could be so life-like to be able to fool him like that. Not even those LMD that SHIELD used came close to the near perfect replication of the human body. ' _Not even Meio's guards were that perfect._ ' Sure they were more resistant and durable but they were never meant to simulate life-like features like Doom's.

Hiryu didn't have much time to think about it, before he had to start dodging more attacks from this new Doom.

"Come forth assassin! Let's make an example out of you!"

Hiryu looked carefully at 'Doom'. Was this the real one? The Doom before this also breathed, blinked and moved with the same fluidity and subtlety of that of a human being. This one could also be a robotic replica.

How's to say that Doom was even alive? He could have thousands upon thousands of replicas, all with the same memories, with the same mentality, with the same objective. Every single one of them acting and believing to be the real thing. Each one creating more copies, ensuring that the world would never be one day left without Doom.

' _Doesn't matter! I shall destroy every single copy to finally rid the world from his evil_!' If he was fighting robots, then it was time for him to use his forth type of plasma.

Then the edge of his Cypher turned from red to purple.

Every time he swung his sword, from its edge Cypher liberated electromagnetic plasma that tracked and homed towards any metal wearing opponent to cut them in half. Not to mention the fact that the energy blades could pass through anything without slowing down or damaging non-intended targets.

Something that Doom learned too late when the blades pass through his protective energy barrier and cut him in half.

"Another robot" Hiryu noted.

Then from all side of the throne room, dozens of Doom's appeared and surrounded Hiryu.

"Come!" Hiryu said. "I shall slay every single one of you!"

[x]

Hiryu stood over the remains of all the 'Doom-bots' that he had slay. Still there was no sign from the original anywhere.

"He might have escaped long ago." It was a reasonable to think Doom had sent his copies to deal with him from afar while he hid or escape from Latveria.

Suddenly from the remains of the destroyed bots, they stared to shine a bright light that almost blinded Hiryu.

' _This feels like…_ ' Hiryu thought before the whole room was caught in an explosion. Luckily, was able to survive the explosion but not without suffering some serious damage.

' _Magic…!_ ' During their fight, the Doombots used all sorts of weaponry and an energy attacks. But all of them had been techno-based. How could they have magic inside them too?

"Fool. Doom never runs away." A new Doom stepped inside, looking at Hiryu on the floor. "Permit me to salute your skills, assassin!" Doom said with sincerity. "The so called Earth Mightiest Heroes have difficulties dealing with just one of my copies. For you to defeat so many speaks a lot about your courage. A pity you have not the power to match it!"

Hiryu tried to stand as he activated his Medical Tech to start healing his injuries and get rid of some of the pain so he could keep fighting.

"Remarkable." Doom added as he watched Hiryu trying to stand up, "But in the end, Futile. This game shall soon reach its inevitable conclusion; and the final triumph shall belong to Doctor Doom!"

As Doom said this, a magical circle appeared from below Hiryu and from it came a glass-like cylinder that entrapped the Strider within.

"Time for you to die!" Then a torrent of magic-infused electricity began zapping Hiryu with a ridiculous high voltage. Strider been too weak to try and escape or break the glass, just stood there screaming in pain as the electricity coursed throughout his body, frying him from the inside out.

When the torture stopped, on the inside of the tube there was only the charred remains of Strider Hiryu.

"It is over." Doom announced as he began to walk away, already summoning a servant to pick up the remains and to clean the room. Doom's throne room must be nothing short of perfect.

But before Doom could even leave, the room began to be enveloped by heat and some sort of strange energy. The monarch turned towards the burnt body only to find it standing back as fire began to consume the charred flesh that remained.

"That is…" Doom widen his eyes in honest surprise. He had seen this before, but he couldn't believe it was happening to the assassin he just destroyed.

" **Doom… It is time for you… to pay for your crimes…** " The revived assassin said with a deep grasping voice.

In that instant, Strider Hiryu was no more. Instead, the Spirit of Vengeance was on his place.

The Ghost-Strider had arrived.

* * *

5.4

" **Doom… It is time for you… to pay for your crimes…** " The Ghost Strider said in a deep grasping voice.

Quickly getting over his surprise, Doom replied. "Doom answers to no one! Not even the so called Spirit of Vengeance." This hasn't been the first time he had encountered someone like him. "I shall send you back to the hellfire that spawn you!" Just like he had done to Blaze before him.

Instantly, more Doombots entered the scene, ready to destroy the assassin once more.

Strider looked at the incoming assault without worry. Then the hellfire that burn eternally around his skull turned from its natural color, into a very familiar purple looking one. With a Hellish roar the spirit of vengeance unleashed a purple pulse that extended beyond the throne room walls and continued until it had covered the whole castle.

"What is…" Doom began but was interrupted by the sound of all his Doombots falling into the floor malfunctioning. "An EMP?!" Impossible! Doom had designed his machines to resist such things. But this was no normal EMP, the pulse was powered by the demonic powers of the spirit of vengeance.

"This can't be…" Then Doom felt it; his own armor felt heavier. The Purple Pulse deactivated all of his armor internal systems. "I'll make you pay for this!" If the hell spawn thought he had him beat because he couldn't access to any of his armors weapons, he had another thing coming."You may have deactivated my armor! But Doom's mystic powers are an equal match to those of the Sorcerer Supreme!" Doom prepared to summon an entire army of demons just to prove that point.

But in the end the Ghost Strider didn't let him. Changing the purple flames into blue ones, the strider then froze the whole room including Doctor Doom all the way up to his neck so he couldn't move a single muscle.

" **Victor von Doom! The day of Judgment is upon you!** " The Strider announced as he walked up to the frozen Doom. " **And there is but one fate for the guilty!** "

Doom, not showing an ounce of fear spat back. "I do not recognize your authority to pass any judgment!"

" **Words and titles cannot save you now!** " the spirit said ignoring Doom's words. " **Now let us see the darkness in your soul so I may make it burn for all eternity!** " The spirit neared his face towards Doom's " **Now, look into my eyes!"**

Doom knew what was going to come; he had seen Blaze used the same infernal attack on others. Never would Doom imagine that he would be on the receiving end one day. Still, the ruler of Latveria didn't falter, never would he show a sign of weakness. No. Doom wasn't afraid at all, because he had an ace up his sleeve if something of this magnitude ever happened to him.

"No. You, look into my eyes!"

As both of them stare at each other, a blinding light appeared to envelop them both as time seemed to come to a stop.

[x]

Hiryu 'woke up' feeling warmth surrounding him. He couldn't open his eyes but he could feel himself floating. He remained like that for god-knows how long before he realized where he was. He was in utero.

Then he felt himself been pushed out of the warm into the cold outside. He had just been born. Hiryu felt warmth again and hear the voices of people he didn't recognize.

"It's a boy!"

"He's beautiful!"

Said a man and a woman respectively. Where these people his parents?

"How we should call him?" asked the man.

"Victor…Victor von Doom."

[x]

Victor felt cold. He also felt weak. He didn't remember the last time he had ever felt like this before, but he didn't need said memories to realize that he hated feeling this way; helpless and without control over his own life.

Then he felt warm, and heard the voice of a young child talk to him.

"Do not cry Hiryu, your big sister is here for you!"

[x]

Hiryu was living the life of Victor von Doom. It was a surreal experience to be able to live through it as both an outsider and in 'First Person' at the same time, since he couldn't exactly do, say or thought differently as Doom did. It was difficult to keep track of it all since he could feel, hear, taste, look and smell everything that Victor did, not to mention Hiryu keep hearing his thoughts as if they were his own. Hiryu struggled not to confuse Doom's own thought for his own.

Then it came the day, his mother, or better said, Victor's mother sealed her own destiny. All because she had to make a deal with the devil, a deal with Mephisto, in order to defend her family. Because of her new powers caused the death of innocents children of their people, the Zefiro, which horrified her and she renounced to them. Not long after that was killed and her soul was forever traped in the claws of the dastardly devil.

[x]

Victor, or better said 'Hiryu', since he was living his life; roamed the lands alongside his big sister Mariya in search or refuge and food. Hiryu didn't know it and had no idea at the time, but Doom speculated that the poverty and lack of food was because of the constant fights between Japan and Russia for the island where Mariya and he lived.

Currently, the land was in possession of Russia and it have been for some time now. That meant both him and his sister where technically Russian despite been born and bearing names from a Japanese family.

[x]

After his mother's death 'Victor' grew up almost in isolation from his own people, even years after the incident, he could still hear whisperings about his mother Cynthia and her dark powers. Still, Victor didn't grew up alone he had the companionship of a young girl named Valeria. With time the Friendship they both shared turned into love.

[x]

'Hiryu' was scared. Both Mariya and him had been attacked by a bandit trying to steal whatever he could from defenseless street orphans. Mariya, in an act of desperation, stabbed the man in the neck making him bleed to death.

This had been Hiryu's first experience with death.

[x]

Victor's Dad Werner died protecting him. He froze to death in the Latverian Alps after he and Victor escape the troops of the current king, Vladimir, had sent after them because Werner, as a healer, could save the queen's life from her illness.

Werner died protect his son from the cold.

Victor swore revenge for the death of both of his parents.

[x]

Mariya's murderous act caught the attention of a certain man. A man who saw potential on the both of them. The man, Kuramoto, ran a mercenary group known as the Striders, a secret clandestine group of freelance mercenaries with no allegiances to any country, working all over the world from the shadows. And he wanted them to join.

With no other place to go, Mariya and Hiryu accepted.

[x]

Searching through the meager possessions of his father, Victor came across the trunk containing his mother's various mystical artifacts. These he showed to Valeria, and while she feared their use, Victor then spent his years mastering the arts of both science and sorcery vowing to use these skills to become master of the world. This drew a wedge between him and Valeria, who feared that Victor was out of control. Seeing her as weak, Victor began distancing himself from the woman he loved.

[x]

It seemed that Kuramoto was right in inducting both siblings into the organization. Both Hiryu and Mariya picked up quickly on all the lessons, such as espionage, sabotage and assassination. Hiryu in particular was on his way on becoming the youngest Strider ever to achieve A-Class status, maybe even Special-A. As soon as both siblings began doing missions, they started to distance themselves from each other.

[x]

Despite using his new found magic powers and scientific prowess to scam money out of the ruling class of Latveria; Victor used his mastery to protect the Zefiro, making him their leader and protector as they tried to stay a step ahead of the King who so persecuted them.

[x]

Hiryu expertly used his new acquired skills to infiltrate the room of man in the middle of the night and slit his throat. He didn't know how this man was or why he was sent to assassinate him, but he did so anyways, for his organization, for his 'father' Kuramoto who had order him to do so, and he obeyed.

[x]

One night while Victor went for a walk away from the village he was caught by one of King Vladimir's soldiers with nothing to defend himself. With a rifle pointed in his face, Victor suddenly lunged at the soldier and strangled him to death. Victor looked the man in the eye as his life was snuffed out and the experience left him feeling horrified, believing that he had finally become his mother's son. Victors hands shook well into the next day.

[x]

It was one of the few days in which Hiryu and Mariya could see each other. Even after not seeing each other for months, they had little to tell to each other than what their missions went.

Mariya confessed to Hiryu that she had been having nightmares from her last mission. It was a simple search-and-destroy operation and that there were to be no witnesses. The mission went well, until she was accidently spotted by a small child. Since it had been her the one spotted, it was her duty to dispose of the witness herself. Even now, she could see the eyes of fear of the child as she extinguished the child's life.

Hiryu just nodded and told her that she had done her job. And that nothing else mattered.

[x]

Eventually, stories of Victor's scientific prowess reached the United States. Victor was offered a full scholarship at State University on top of using his skills to develop new weapons for the United States. Victor accepted the offer seeing this as a new challenge, but also as a means to escape what his life had become in Latveria. Upon arrival at State U, Victor met another young genius named Reed Richards who took interest in Doom's work. Richards remained beneath Von Doom's notice until a physics class where Victor got into disagreement with his professor over the work of Einstein pertaining to parallel universes. When Richards spoke up to defend Victor's theoretical point of view, Von Doom angrily told Richards he did not require his assistance, but was none the less impressed by him. Soon, Reed and Victor became intellectual rivals, constantly competing with each other academically.

[x]

One day after a particular difficult mission, Kuramoto, assigned Hiryu to a new partner who was the same age he was. Strider Hien. Hien was also a young prodigy that had jumped through the ranks almost as fast as Hiryu did.

Hiryu didn't particularly care, but Hien declare himself Hiryu's rival. Always competing and trying to demonstrate that he was far superior to him. Even so, the two of them made an impressive team that could tackle any mission assigned to them with no difficulty.

[x]

With the military, Victor began working on robots for combat use while in his dorm room lab began building a device that would allow him to search for the soul of his mother. Doom continued his study into the black arts as well.

[x]

After his successful rate of missions and demonstrating his loyalty, Kuramoto decided to teach Hiryu about the secret art of energy manipulation. This energy was something that only a selected few could ever tap into let alone master it. Still, Kuramoto had faith in Hiryu's abilities. That faith was later rewarded when Hiryu managed to channel this energy effectively to cut metal with his bare hands.

From now on, Hiryu's growth would rise exponentially.

[x]

One day, Reed happened upon Doom's notes for his device to contact his mother. In most accounts it is said that Richards found that some of his calculations were off. However when Doom caught Richards looking at his notes, his pride, ego and anger prevented him from listening to Richard's warnings and he continued on with the experiment.

The device worked for a few moments and Victor was briefly transported to Mephisto's realm where his mother begged him to turn back. However Mephisto reached out and touched Doom, chilling him to the bone. It was at that moment the experiment literally blew up in his face, scarring it. For conducting the experiment in secret and without authorization from the university, Victor was expelled from State U and blamed Richards for his experiment going wrong.

[x]

Hiryu and Hien continued working as a team and training together. But Hien didn't miss the sudden increase in Hiryu's abilities and the special treatment he received from Kuramoto.

Then one day, Kuramoto awarded Hiryu with the highest rank possible for a Strider. The Special-A class. This made Hien's heart cold and turned the rivalry he had with Hiryu bitter.

[x]

For conducting illegal experiments using the USA military resources, Victor was branded a traitor so he escaped America, but not before using a device that sabotaged all his inventions, forever denying them the various technologies that Victor came to create under their service. Before they could capture Victor he had already fled the country.

Victor used the money he earned in America to go into hiding and was frequently moving from place to place in Europe to avoid the American authorities, while he continued to perfect his craft. It was also during this period that Doom built a new Time-Platform and traveled through time.

[x]

One day in the year 2048, Kuramoto summoned Hiryu to his office to assign him the most important mission of his life and the organization's history. He was going to infiltrate Kazakh City, and assassinate Grandmaster Meio.

Meio, for all intents and purposes, was God.

In the year 2000, twenty years before Hiryu's birth, Meio descended from the skies and declared himself the god creator of the world. After showing what he was capable of, many believe him and started to adore him, founding a church around him and even changing the year designations to before and after Meio.

Despite all of this, many still remained skeptical.

Meio's arrival not only brought a new age of religion, when slowly all religions began to turn obsolete and considered small cults; he also brought and share a new age of technological advancements.

The world quickly become much more industrialized than before, creating gigantic metropolis which buildings obscured the sky from ground level.

Meio, then took residence in a small Eurasian country and founded Kazakh City where he built a gigantic tower from where he could 'see' the whole world. And the small nation that housed Kazakh, became a superpower almost overnight.

Kuramoto was a non believer of Meio's godhood. Sure, he believed in his powers, but he only saw them as an evolved form of their own energy manipulation. Because of this, he was naturally suspicious of him, that's why he had sent Striders to spy on him and report all suspicious activity.

After the initial reports, the communications with the Striders sent to Kazakh were lost. Kuramoto suspected that they have fallen in combat. That's why he had sent Hien to investigate and sabotage whatever plans Meio had. But Hien also went missing.

Now, it was Hiryu's turn to infiltrate the city and stop the grandmaster plans and take revenge for his fallen comrades.

[x]

After his travels through time Victor returned to his era, still plagued with horrifying dreams from his experience in the netherworld. He eventually sought refuge in France, and constantly dealt with an annoying drunk named Otto who continued to sleep in the doorway outside Doom's apartment regardless of how many times Victor chastised him for doing so.

It was during his stay in France when he met Valeria once again. Their time together was almost like magic as Victor warmly accepted her back into her life, and their whirlwind romance also kept the dark dreams at bay. However this happiness soon came to an end when the KGB, who allied to King Vladimir, tried to use Valeria as a hostage to force Doom to comply with their demands.

[x]

Hiryu dived from the sky using his glider and avoided enemy fire from their anti-air weapons. Then he finally set foot in the ground, Hiryu began his mission to infiltrate the city. This was an assassination mission, so stealth and espionage were necessary.

Hiryu made his way from the outskirts of the city, destroying any patrol guard he encountered. Though they weren't resistant to the might of his sword Cypher, the guards made up in overwhelming numbers.

Still, no matter the numbers or the weapons, Hiryu will not fail to assassinate the grandmaster; he will not fail his mission.

[x]

When all seemed grim, Doom was surprised when Otto came to his aid, using mystical powers to shield Valeria from harm and killing the KGB agents, but not before taking a number of their bullets himself. Dying, Otto explained that he was part of an order of monks who resided deep in the Himalayan Mountains of Tibet who had a prophecy that a man hiding his true face would soon come to lead them. After Otto died of his wounds, Valeria begged Victor to come back to Latveria with her, but Von Doom refused, deciding to seek his destiny in Himalayan Mountains.

[x]

After disposing of so many Light Troopers, Hiryu came face to face to his real obstacle. Vityaz-1. One of Meio's Elite Guards. Like the Troopers before him, Vityaz was also an android but he was produced with state-of-the-art technology. Their abilities were far superior to those of the Light Troopers, surpassing them in all aspect such as power, speed, technique, etc.

If Hiryu didn't know any better, we would've thought he was fighting an A-Class Strider.

The Vityaz series could be better described as "embodiment of agility and raw aggression" with how relentless their attacks were, especially with their weapon of choice, a two-pronged pole weapon honed to atomic sharpness, which glowed with blue plasma energy when swung. The same Plasma Energy that Hiryu also used. Not to mention the fact they were also equipped cutting edge teleportation technology, which they use both as a dodge technique as well as a scare tactic, to try and kill you from behind.

Hiryu, could see why so many of his 'brothers' had fallen to the forces of the Grandmaster.

[x]

With no information other than that this secret order of monks lived in the Himalayas, Victor traveled there and spent months climbing the mountains and searching for clues to the whereabouts of this hidden tribe.

Eventually, Doom's resources were nearly exhausted and he faced starvation and hypothermia. However he found a minor repast from eventual death from the elements the day he was attacked by a Yeti which Victor slew. The creature's flesh gave him food, and his fur an extra coat to protect him from the elements.

Eventually his supplies ran out again and after months of travel and on the brink of death he found the temple collapsing outside. Victor was found by the monks and was nursed back to health.

[x]

Deep in the city, Hiryu found himself inside Kazakh City's Research Facility. Besides the development of weaponry for the Army, the facility had another main purpose: the genetic research for the creation of Grandmaster Meio's "New Species." Meio's plan was to eradicate the human race and start anew with a new humanity that he deemed 'perfect' and only loyal and faithful to him.

At the head of this project, was Professor Schlange. A ruthless man with no moral code or ethics, willing to conduct horrifying experiments with human specimen, in order to satiate this obsessive desire. A deranged man with delusions of grandeur, Schlange took immense pride in his own creations, calling "his beasts" both beautiful and magnificent.

Hiryu wasn't going to allow both madmen perversions of nature continue. He will destroy this place and all its unholy research.

[x]

Doom found that the monks were masters of both magic and technology and upon reaching full health he mastered all they knew and surpassed their abilities himself within five years. So impressed were the monks that they named him their leader. He then constructed a device that allowed him to monitor all television, radio, satellite and internet transmissions and learned that his old school rival Reed Richards was working on a new experimental space vessel and grew furious. It was at this time that Victor insisted that the monks all begin referring to him as "Doctor Doom".

[x]

Above the skies of Kazakh City there rested a gigantic flying battleship named the Balrog, and the place where the final Gravitron was located. Hiryu infiltrated the giant battleship in order to destroy the Gravitron and gain access to Meio's Tower. But inside, he found a familiar face waiting for him. Solo.

Hiryu had already defeated the so called unmatched bounty hunter before, even put an end to his life. But now, through the technical prowess of Meio's Army and strange powers, the heavily damaged Solo was brought back to life with even more upgrades and weapons than ever. But the forceful resurrection and upgrade process, coupled with the mental anguish he suffered after having his pride wounded by "defeat", took a heavy toll on Solo's mind. Mentally unstable and unhinged, Solo now lives as a demon of revenge whose sole purpose is to finish off Hiryu.

Hiryu couldn't muster an ounce of sympathy for Solo, and since he was between him and his mission, the Strider would put an end to his life one more time.

[x]

Finally growing fed up of the constant nightmares and wishing to feel neither emotion nor pain, Victor began to design a suit of armor that not only protected him from the dreams but also severed his physical connection to the world making him a cold engine of logic.

Doom had the monks forge this armor for him, and when they were constructing the mask, Victor put it on before it could cool ignoring the searing pain which likely disfigured his face even more horrifying than before. Deciding it was finally time to get revenge against King Vladimir, the newly born Doctor Doom left the Himalayas for his homeland.

[x]

At the Atrium, inside of Meio's Tower, Hiryu find something he wasn't expecting. It was a chest piece with the Chinese character (飛). It was the chest piece of Hien, who of all the other fallen Striders, managed to get the closest to The Grandmaster.

For his sacrifice and for all the others, Hiryu would kill Meio. All he had to do now was to enter the throne room.

[x]

When Doctor Doom first arrived in Latervia, he took refuge in a small abandoned castle which overlooked the abandoned village where, many years ago, his mother was responsible for the death of every child that lived there. Doom made his presence known by confronting guards watching over a chain-gang of slave workers and slew the soldiers and freed the slaves telling them to spread the word that the tyrants of Latveria would fall to the might of Doctor Doom.

[x]

Once Hiryu came face to face with The Grandmaster, Meio sincerely thanked him for having taken care of his subordinates, for he was tired of their incompetence. Then Meio proceeded to explain his distaste for the human world and how "imperfect" humanity really was and how they had squandered the gifts granted by him. So he planned to start anew and bring a new age. "The age of Meio".

He also gave Hiryu the chance to join him, since he had proved to be a specimen for superior and above the rest of humanity. And if he joined him this new humanity of Meio's would be created in Hiryu's image. Hiryu hastily refused disappointing Meio who began his assault.

This was the final battle.

[x]

Soon word spread of Doctor Doom's plans to liberate the people of Latveria from Vladimir's rule and soon a rebellion army was formed to over throw the king. Valeria eventually came to see Victor and was horrified to see what he had become, when she spoke against him, Doom had her removed from his audience.

Soon Doom sent out his rebellion forces with his army of robots and gained many victories. More and more people joined Victor's rebellion including many of Vladimir's soldiers. Doctor Doom eventually sent a messenger with a holographic projector so that Victor could issue his ultimatum to King Vladimir: Surrender and live, or fight and die. Vladimir refused to surrender, so Doom ordered his people to prepare for the final battle.

[x]

Despite Meio's incredible powers, Hiryu strike him down. But that wasn't the end for the Grandmaster. Screaming and writhing in pain, Meio used his powers to open a wormhole that transported them into a space base in orbit. There is when Meio revealed his true form.

Not having come this far to lose, Hiryu managed to defeat the Space God, using the last of his powers. Meio screamed in pain as he began collapsing into the atmosphere towards Earth. Without any other means to return to the planet, Hiryu calmly stood over the god's corpse and rode it down the atmosphere where it vaporized in the atmospheric reentry.

[x]

When Doom's army arrived in the capital city, the soldiers departed, not wishing to fight an unbeatable foe. Doom then entered the town alone and learned that King Vladimir was attempting to escape the city through a secret tunnel in the local cathedral.

There Doom confronted his most hated enemy, the man responsible for the murders of his mother and father, and strangled him to death. With Vladimir dead, Victor took his royal cloak as his own. Upon the death of Vladimir, Dr. Doom had his castle destroyed and relocated the new capital city of Latveria to the town where his mother died years ago, rebuilding the castle there as his new imperial center. The town was renamed Doomstadt and Victor was then crowned king of the land.

[x]

Hiryu returned home triumphant over the defeat of the Grandmaster, but when he arrived he wasn't received with good news. His Sister Mariya had returned from a failed mission. It appeared that she was captured by the enemy and tortured for several weeks, but she managed to escape and return to the HQ. Still the experience was traumatic enough that she had slipped into a coma.

[x]

Now with a kingdom to command, Doom then used his mystical skills to summon up Mephisto and the two entered into a pact: Doom would be offered a chance to try and save his mother's soul once a year. However, if Victor should fail, the price was that the people of his domain would slowly grow to hate and despise him. Victor agreed to these terms and over the years he tried time and time again to save his mother, only to be met with failure each time. For a time Doom kept his rule of Latveria a secret from the outside world.

[x]

After several weeks, Mariya finally woke up, but instead of been a day of celebration, it turn into a tragedy. After she had woke up Mariya started attacking everyone around here. In her rampage ans subsequent escape, many people lost their lives, including various experienced Striders and young trainees, who were just children.

Kuramoto, branded her a traitor and a menace. Knowing how skilled and powerful she was, all the heavy losses the Striders had suffered, Kuramoto had no other choice but to assign Hiryu to her capture and execution.

[x]

Dr. Doom soon learned that his rival Reed Richards and his flight crew had gained super-human powers after being exposed to cosmic rays and formed a group of costumed adventurers known as the Fantastic Four.

[x]

Fighting his flesh and blood hadn't been easy for Hiryu, not even his training to suppress his emotions had help, not after he had delivered the final strike to Mariya.

He had accepted that this was the only option. Mariya was a traitor and an unstable menace, it was his duty to put a stop to her. But when Mariya started to bleed out, something in her eyes changed. They were no longer full of madness. No, her eyes reflected pain, not for her injuries but for broken heart. As she lay dying, tears in her eyes revealed that her madness wasn't of her own but induced by brainwashing which at the moment of dead had lost its hold on her. In shock, Mariya uttered her last words, asking Hiryu what had happened, and why he had done this to her.

[x]

Following his last defeat at the hands of the Fantastic Four, Doom spent a period of time clashing with other super-heroes to see what he could learn from them.

[x]

Following the death of her sister, Hiryu decided to quit from the Strider organization to roam the Asian continent to clear his mind and spirit from the guilt he felt for failing his sister.

One day, Striders' Vice-Director Matic showed up, requesting that Hiryu return for one last mission. An operative named Strider Kain had been captured by an enemy and he held a lot of valuable information that could put the organization at risk. Hiryu refused. Matic then threaten to kill civilians if Hiryu didn't cooperate.

Before Hiryu could even try to kill Matic for such underhanded tactic, the vice-president hinted at the possibility that whoever had captured Kain, could be the ones who had capture Mariya before.

[x]

Doom then began to focus his efforts on the Fantastic Four again, this time deciding to create super-humans that could compete with his super-powered foes.

[x]

For this new mission, Hiryu teamed up with Strider Sheena, an old training partner of his when he had been a kid. The two of them infiltrated Kazakh City Secret Police HQ, an organization founded after the death of the Grandmaster to keep order on the country, and rescued Strider Kain. But Kain suddenly woke up and attacked them both without any provocation. Hiryu was forced to fight back and eventually subdued Kain, but not before he mortally wounded Sheena.

Hiryu then found a type of implant in Kain's neck, and forced a kidnapped Kazakh officer to reveal that Kain was subjected to a brainwashing machine known as ZAIN, developed by Enterprise, which were investigating a way to control people's minds. Hiryu also realized his sister was a victim of this experiment, as he remembers she had a similar mark from the implant on her neck.

Hiryu related this event to Kain, distraught after discovering what he did to Sheena, as a way to calm him down. The next morning, they both made a grave for Sheena and swear to stop Enterprise.

[x]

Doom began developing a device called an "Emotion Changer" plotting to use this in his next scheme against the Fantastic Four. Doom found the perfect opportunity to use the device: on the day of the wedding between Reed Richards and Sue Storm. The device cast influence to super-villains all over the globe and even in different times and dimensions, compelling them to attack the wedding.

[x]

Hiryu and Kain infiltrated the Kazakh Federation Mental Institute, location of the ZAIN laboratory, which was defended by Captain Keith and his Special Forces. They tried to use the institute's patients, who were themselves used as guinea pigs in the experiments which left them completely insane, as a cover to try to kill Hiryu and Kain. However, upon seeing a small child among the patients, Hiryu snaped and unleashed his anger onto the soldiers and Keith, killing them mercilessly.

Both Hiryu and Kain found and confronted the head scientist, who revealed that the Striders were secretly helping Enterprise with the ZAIN Project. Following the destruction of the ZAIN Terminal, the scientist reveals it was just a relay computer, and that there are several ZAIN interconnected all over the world.

[x]

Doom's kingdom was soon visited by the exiled herald of Galactus known as the Silver Surfer and Doom began plotting to steal his vast cosmic powers. Doom attacked using a device that drained the Silver Surfer of his Power Cosmic, transferring it to Doom. Using the Silver Surfer's board, Doom flew off to use his new found power to make himself the master of the world.

Doom clashed with the FF one more time however Reed Richards had developed a device called the "Anti-Cosmic Flying Wing" to attack Doom and then fly into space. Unaware of the barrier that Galactus had put around the Earth, Doom flew after it and slammed into the barrier and was seemingly destroyed.

However Doom was far from dead, when he crashed into the barrier it alerted Galactus that someone else other than the Silver Surfer had hit the barrier he put around the Earth to keep his wayward herald planet bound. Looking upon Doom, Galactus decreed the dictator beneath his notice and used his vast power to trap him in a "molecular bubble" that slowly transported him back to his castle in Latveria.

[x]

Matic, enraged at the destruction of the institute, realized that only Special A-Class Striders can deal with Hiryu and Kain, so he sent fellow Striders Arana and Kubira after them. After defeated the both of them, Hiryu confronted Matic, who revealed his plans to take over both Enterprise and the Striders to rule over the world.

Hiryu and Matic have a short fight until Kuramoto, who had been a hostage of Kain, appeared with the last remaining loyal Striders on his side. Cornered, Matic is killed alongside the ZAIN machine by Hiryu who threw his Cypher at its core.

At the end of it all, Kuramoto offered Hiryu the chance to return to the organization, which he promptly refused. Hiryu had managed to find and destroy the ones responsible for Mariya's madness, and now all he wanted was to leave in peace.

[x]

Doom returned to Latveria where is was approached by another Fantastic Four villain, the alchemist known as Diablo. Diablo offered an alliance between the two, and when Doom refused Diablo showed Victor that he had his old childhood love Valeria as his prisoner. Doom tried to brush this off as of without consequence, but soon found that he could not ignore is old feelings for her and went after Diablo.

[x]

Hiryu lived a long life in solitude away from civilization he couldn't stand. By the year 4048 (or 2048 A.M. **A** fter **M** eio) an increase in its population has led into massive wars and starvation worldwide, and the destruction of the environment has led to the generation of chronic diseases and genetic mutations. The world governments are corrupt to the core, and conspire together with large-scale crime syndicates. Crimes and suicide rates skyrocket, and anyone asking for peace and justice are dealt the exact opposite, ruin and incarceration. Cybernetic implants, human experimentation and powerful drugs run rampant.

And to top it all, Grandmaster Meio had made his return 2000 years after his defeat at Hiryu's hands. After his return, Meio feared that his plans would be stopped once again by the Striders, so he sent his most powerful agent after them. Special-A Class Strider Hien.

With no Striders to oppose him, It fell into Hiryu the responsibility to defeat Meio one more time.

[x]

Doom learned that Diablo wished to utilize Doom's time machine so that they could both alter history and rule the world. However, Doom had no interest in this plan, or a desire to share his plans with a mere lackey. He then betrayed Diablo and rigged his Time-Platform to transfer the alchemist to the distant future, gloating over Diablo's getting his wish; to be the sole master of Earth, albeit a dead world. Freed from Diablo's exile, Valeria was horrified by how much Victor relished utterly defeating his foe and left, vowing to never return to him again.

[x]

Hiryu traveled all over the world to put a stop to Meio's plan.

In Neo Hong Kong City, Hiryu fought once again against the Wind Sisters, and Solo. All brought back to life thanks to Meio's godlike powers.

In Antartica, Hiryu destroyed the Research Facility where Meio's experiments for a new 'humanity' continued, alongside the creation of more unholy genetic mutations.

It all culminated when Hiryu managed to arrive at Third Moon, a gigantic space station orbiting Earth. There, he confronted Solo and his clones for the last time before encountering Hien. Hiryu didn't know if Strider Hien had betrayed them 2000 years ago or was been manipulated by Meio after he was revived. Either way, Hiryu was going to put an end to his life.

[x]

Valeria fled Latveria and emigrated to Cassamonte, Georgia, believing that Doom's hatred of the United States would prevent him from seeking her out. Eventually, Doom managed to find her and, meeting her without his armor or other protection, vowed to renounce science in exchange for her hand and love. Valeria accepted his offer. However, unbeknownst to her, Doom had made a pact with a cabal of netherdemons who offered unimaginable mystic power in exchange for the sacrifice of something of irreplaceable value — and Doom had chosen the life of the only woman who had truly loved him. Valeria was killed as the demonic spell unleashed by Doom consumed her body, her flayed skin becoming Doom's new enchanted armor.

[x]

Finally reaching the control section, Grandmaster Meio faced Hiryu, exclaiming that he'll would not be stopped before destroying the Earth and achieving his goal. In the end Hiryu defeated Meio once more. As the fallen god returned to the real of death, he couldn't help but wonder if the Strider who stopped him was the same one from 2000 years ago,then the Third Moon explodes violently.

Hiryu fell from the space into Earth entering the atmosphere and crashed into the ocean, where a friendly whale saved him from drowning. After Hiryu stood on the back of the whale, an animal the thought was extinct long ago, and rode it towards the sunset feeling that his death was nearing, wondering if everything he had done for the world was even worth it.

After that Doom closed his eyes, and let himself fall into the void of slumber.

[x]

After winning won a favor from Doctor Strange, Doom asked him to help him retrieve his mother's soul. Fighting their way through Mephisto's demon hordes, Victor found her, and made a deal with Mephisto to give him Strange in return for his mother's freedom and Victor's soul.

Doom captured Doctor Strange, and presented him to Mephisto. Upon learning the price Victor had payed for her soul, Cynthia rejected him, denouncing as a traitor, and her soul was once again trapped by Mephisto. Unbeknownst to the demon however, Victor had provided Strange with a device to free himself from his bonds. In the ensuing battle, Mephisto accidentally freed Cynthia's soul, and having earned her redemption by rejecting her son's attempted rescue, she was free to go to a better afterlife.

Doom returned to his castle in Latveria wondering if everything he had done to save the soul of his mother was even worth it.

Then Hiryu closed his eyes and fell into the void of slumber.

[x]

Then Doom saw Hiryu 'Awaken' for the first time.

* * *

Victor von Doom opened his eyes and woke up frightened for the first time in years. Looking around he found himself in his throne room surrounded by the destroyed and frozen remains of his Doombots.

A scene that seemed so far away in his memories.

Looking around Doom found the assassin, in his original form, struggling in the floor. Victor near him and had the assassin at his feet and under his mercy.

"How…? How is it… possible… for someone like you…?" The fallen warrior said almost whispering, having difficulty letting his voice pass through his throat. "You…a monster…how can you have a soul so Pure?!"

"Stand up, Strider Hiryu! We have much to talk about."


End file.
